Advanced Scheduling 2: Scheduling and Synchronizing Jobs in Parallel 
Advanced Scheduling 2: Scheduling and Synchronizing Jobs in Parallel
Goal
: Assume that you have the constellation shown in the diagram below: one job should launch two additional programs that run in parallel. When both of these are done, a fourth job should start.You’d like to implement this consolidation in a single job. The advantage: you only have to start the master job to start the whole process.
Synchronized Parallel Jobs
Implementation: The diagram below shows how this process could be implemented. An initial report schedules Job 1, which does preparatory work for Jobs 2 and 3 and then schedules them. (You could guarantee that Jobs 2 and 3 start after Job 1 with "start after predecessor" scheduling -- building a job chain between job1 and jobs 2 and 3 with a job or report that ran previously. For more information, see Advanced Scheduling 1: Building Chains of Jobs).
Implementing Parallel Synchronized Jobs
The synchronizing mechanism is provided by a small program that updates a status flag shared by Jobs 2 and 3. The first job sets the status and quits. The second job to run the status program schedules job 4.