In Project Management Central (version 4.0 and newer) for SharePoint 2010 and 2013, you have the ability to use timer jobs to execute common, scheduled tasks. In this article, we’ll introduce you to how to use timer jobs in Project Management Central (PM Central), including how to activate the timer jobs, as well as how to utilize them to update project information.

To begin managing timer jobs in SharePoint, go to the Central Administration site. Under Monitoring, select Check Job Status. On the Timer Job Status page, you will see many different timer jobs displayed. Included in the list of timer jobs will be any that you may have set up in PM Central.

Timer Jobs in PM Central

In order to view PM Central’s timer job(s), on the Timer Job Status page, click on the Timer Definition link. You will be directed to a page that displays and stores all of your timer jobs including those for SharePoint and Bamboo.

For PM Central, you will find that there are a number of different types of timer jobs.  These include:

• Bamboo Update Summary Project List for SharePoint – Update the Summary List at the top site. This summarizes and updates task, issue, and milestone data from all projects to the portfolio site’s Summary List. The Summary List data is used to update the charts on the portfolio site’s Project Central tab (Default Schedule is 59 minutes).
• Bamboo Update Task, Issues, and Project Health Lists for SharePoint – Updates information in the Tasks List, Issues List, Risks List, and Project Health List. This updates the Project Name field in the Tasks, Issues, and Risks lists using the Project Name from the Project Health list, and updates the Project Start Date, Project End Date, % Complete, Project Actual Cost (Time Entry), and Project Actual Work (Time Entry) fields in the Project Health list based on data from the project’s Tasks list (Default Schedule is 59 minutes).
• Bamboo Reporting Calculation Timer Job V4 – Updates information in the Report Info Cost Project Site and Report Info Project Site lists. This updates lists (assignment, work, cost, project department, etc.) for report usage at the project site (Default Schedule is one day).

Timer Job Settings in PM Central

In order to access the Timer Job Settings in PM Central, you will need to navigate to the Central Administration site. Under Bamboo Project Management Central, select Project Central Timer Job Scheduler.

From this site, you have the ability to manage timer job information such as updating the timer job scheduler and setting timer jobs to run immediately.

On the Timer Job Scheduler page, you will see the three timer jobs described above listed:

Activate Timer Jobs in PM Central for a Web Application

In order to activate timer jobs for PM Central for a Web Application, go to Central Administration, and, Under Web Applications, select Manage Web applications. From there, select the Web application for which you would like to activate a timer job (in this example, we’ll be using the application SharePoint – port 80). On the Ribbon, select Manage Features.

A pop-up menu will appear with the different options to Manage Web Application Features. Your features will now be active in PM Central.

Update Data Immediately from the PM Central Top Site

In the event that you need to update data immediately, you will want to update data at the PM Central top site rather than going through Central Administration.

To begin, go to the PM Central top site. Under Central Actions, select PM Central Control Panel. Under the Application Actions section, select Update Data.

Please note that there is ONLY support for the Update data feature for Bamboo Update Summary Project List for SharePoint and Bamboo Update Task, Issues, and Project Health Lists for SharePoint.

Want to learn more about Timer Jobs in SharePoint?  Head over to Microsoft’s guide to Manage SharePoint timer jobs (Project Server) to find out about more timer job features