Process is intricately woven into the fabric of all that we do. It organizes our thoughts by setting in motion a sequence of events. It is the way we prepare for a weekend getaway, draw a line, or cook a meal.

look's like you've answered it...

My process usually goes like this (if I had three steps).

1.Why?
2.How?
3.When?

jmac, the question wasn't for me, it was for you..
tectonic, can you elaborate a litte more - 123 was not meant to be a literal translation into steps..
driftwood, i was looking more for your own interpretation of process and method not dictionary.com's definition.

In looking at process, I tend to try and create something that has a value in its own right. I look at something that has relevance, something that has a balance of predictability and randomness, and something that has a degree of flexibility and the ability to be tuned for different results. You must not be ruled by the process - you must rule it.

See my thesis here for an example of a process-driven design.

You have to design the process, and the process designs the architecture. I am a a dedicated machinist, not a diagrammacist [sic]. Having said that, if you meet the process on the road, kill it.

I know. I don't think there's much of a literal difference between the two. Besides maybe that 'method' is more orderly.

i found out that the secret in life is to believe in the process

diabase's 10 process commandments:

1. Never fall in love with your process - it wants to kill you
2. When it comes to using the process, what goes in must come out
3. The process is only as good as the results it produces
4. The process must add value and information to the initial input
5. The process must have depth and complexity
6. The process must have value in its own right
7. The process should ideally work on a range of information types
8. The process should ideally work in two or more directions
9. Keep testing and keep refining
0. Be ruthless - never be afraid to discard and start again

Hello, ether. You know who this is....and believe me process is everything. I learned that from that crazy undergrad prof we had together. But---and this is a big but---- Ive just today ran across a book entitled "art and fear" by david bayles and Ted Orland. Although Im only a few pages into it, I have learned quite a bit. (or I should say I've finally read someone who can articulate what I feel as an artsist/architect)...let me give you a little passage to think about, with respect to your question.

"To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork. To you, and you alone, what matters is process: the experience of shaping that artwork. The viewers' concerns are not your concerns (although its dangerously easy to adopt their attitudes). Their job is whatever it is: to be moved by art, to be entertained by it, to make a killing off it, whatever. Your job is to learn to work on your work."

That being said....here is a quote in the front of the book, from part 1.

Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. - Gene Fowler

I suggest, at least 20 pages into it, that you buy the book...especially knowing where you are headed in a few months..

welcome to the D, baby.

>>>6. The process must have value in its own right

there is an essential flaw to your logic. NOTHING has value in its own right. Value is a human driven agenda. So, Kant is kicking our ass....as we never see the world as it is, but rather as we are....

right?

Electrobricollage

I mean from 6. that the process must have an elegance, like a mathematical formula...

method is a framework for a process.
process is the method of creativity.

"What you put in" does not always "come out".
It takes somewhere else.
This is process.