As of Release 2.2B, you can use the function module GET_JOB_RUNTIME_INFO, you can determine what event and argument triggered the start of a background job from within the background job. This is possible only in job steps that start ABAP programs.

Finding out how a job was triggered makes it possible for a background job to react intelligently to the event with which it was started. Example: You schedule a job that is to be started whenever the event FI_DATAIMPORT_DONE (some phase of a data import has been completed) is triggered, without specifying any event argument. When the job is started, you can determine from within the job which event argument was provided with the event. In this example, your job could therefore find out which phase of the data import was just completed. Depending upon whether the event argument was "FI_TABLE1 " or "FI_TABLE2", your job could respond differently.