1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming part that performs an image forming operation; a higher-order component that sends an image forming request to perform the image forming operation of said image forming part; and a control part that controls said image forming part based on the image forming request received from said higher-order component, wherein said control part controls said image forming part to perform a deactivation standby operation to stand by for a predetermined time while said image forming part is continuously set in an operating state after said image forming part completed the image forming operation, without querying said higher-order component about an image forming operation to be performed subsequently, wherein said higher-order component includes an image processing control part that generates image forming data by processing image data received from an external apparatus connected through a network, wherein, before the processing of the received image data is completed, said image processing control part notifies said control part of time information regarding a time needed to process the image data to generate the image forming data, and wherein said image processing control part issues an advance notice indicating an issuance of an image forming request to said control part before issuing the image forming request corresponding to image forming data requiring a processing time longer than a time required by an image forming operation currently being performed, and said control part starts an operation to cause said image forming part to stand by while being in an operating state under a condition of issuance of the advance notice.