You can try requesting the following from the DBA:

-- allow viewing of object DDL (ie: table schemas and stored procedure text)

GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO [YourDomain\YourLogin];

-- allow querying of DMVs and system tables:

GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO [YourDomain\YourLogin];

-- allow starting / stopping of sql profiler or extended event traces:

GRANT ALTER TRACE TO [YourDomain\YourLogin];

Also, Adam Mechanic has a more comprehensive process viewer, which is in the form of a stored procedure called [sp_whoisactive]. However, if you can't deploy to production, then you can retofit it as a script if needed.

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2012/03/22/released-who-is-active-v11-11.aspx