We present here the outline of the process that any potential GTC observer will need to follow in order to perform their observations. Depending on which of the members of the GTC community the observer belongs to, the details of the different steps and timeline of the process will differ slightly, but in general it will be as follows: first the (Phase I) observing proposal will have to be prepared and submitted to the corresponding Time Allocation Committee. If the proposal is awarded time, then the observer will have to prepare and submit the (Phase II) observing programme to GTC, that will asses it and iterate with the observer if necessary until the observing programme is ready to enter our system. If the observer got time in the classical visiting mode, he/she will have to come in the scheduled dates to perform the observations together with the assigned support astronomer, and if the observations were asked for in service mode, we will schedule and perform them. The result of the process will be both the raw and validated data that will be delivered to the observer and kept in our archive where the rest of the community will be able to access them once the year of exclusivity of the observer has expired.