Before any background processing can actually begin, background jobs must be defined and scheduled. When a job is scheduled to run is one part of the job’s definition. There are several ways to schedule jobs:

• From Transaction SM36 (Define Background Job)
• With the "start program in the background" option of either Transaction SA38 (ABAP: Execute Program) or Transaction SE38 (the ABAP editor)
• Through the background processing system’s own programming interface. (Many SAP applications use the internal programming interface to schedule long-running reports for background processing.)
• Through an external interface.