Multiple Requirements Catalogs

Question

Hi,
Per Michael Fan's suggestion in:
  Non-Existent Requirement Profiles after Processing with RHIQAUDIT_MP_CS
I have been exploring the idea of associating requirements catalogs with programs of study. Generally speaking, it seems to be quite elegant and natural with regards to SLCM's audit capabilities.
However, in our existing paper-based process, the structure of our undergraduate programs is somewhat messy in the sense that undergraduates can have different yearly versions of the catalogs for each major or minor that they sign, plus another different yearly version of the catalog for their overall degree and general education requirements.
Furthermore, in our undergraduate programs catalog, programs of study are named after the various degree programs (B.S., B.A., etc...), and majors and minors (academic specializations) in those degree programs are attached as module groups to their corresponding programs of study. So, unlike some universities, we do not have distinct programs of study for each major (like B.S. in Computer Science, B.S. in Physics, B.A. in Philosophy, etc...).
This seems to imply that we need to derive requirements catalogs from the academic specializations associated with a student's study object (CS - 516 - CG), and not just the program of study (CS - 514 - SC) associated with that study object. If we are to emulate the existing paper process to any reasonable extent, then it seems that we would also need to generate requirements profiles from multiple requirements catalogs (derived as stated above), and I am still not quite sure whether the SLCM audit system was designed to accommodate this.
Any thoughts on whether we should be considering a restructure of our undergraduate format (a potential bureaucratic nightmare), or whether SAP can be made to work well with the notion of more than one requirements catalog (or more than one version of a requirements catalog) contributing to a requirements profile?
Thank you,
Eric

Answer 1

Hi Joachim,
I am somewhat concerned that we may be talking about two different things, or that you are saying something deeper than I realize. So, let me give you some more detail about what I am trying to do, and what I have tried so far.
I understand what you told me earlier about being able to merge multiple catalogs into a requirements profile at various nodes in a requirements pattern. This works for me. As an example, I have a test student, who has a SC, "Bachelor of Science, Plan B1" and an academic specialization, "Broadcast & Cinematic Arts". The SC and the CG have different catalogs, and I have a requirements pattern that looks like:
ReqPattern  Item  RefItem  Requirement
=============================
Test1         1                    Overall Result
Test1         2       1           Degree Program
Test1         3       1           Major
I have attached the SC catalog to the student as a main catalog, and the CG catalog as an additional catalog. Everything works fine. The SC catalog is used for the "Degree Program" requirement and the CG catalog is used for the "Major" requirement.
So far, so good. Now, I add a second major, "Computer Technology", to the student. This major has its own catalog, which is different than the "Broadcast & Cinematic Arts" catalog. Now after I build the requirements profile, HRIQ_RFC_AUDPROFILE_GET basically shows me the following when displaying ET_SUBREQUIREMENTS:
Node   Seq   Subreq_I   Subr   Subreq_Txt
===============================
0002    001   0...06       Sub1   dt-BS-A1-3CRH
0003    001   0...08       Sub1   dt-MJ-BCA-3CRH
0003    002   0...09       Sub1   dt-MJ-COMPTEC-3CRH
And, displaying ET_REQ_PATTERN, I see something like:
Node   Elem   Ref_   Element_Txt   RLCatT                         RLCatVersT
=====================================================
0001    0001   0000   Overall Re...
0002    0101   0001   Degree Pr...   Test-Degree-BS-A1        2007-2008 Fall
0003    0201   0001   Major             Test-Major-COMPTEC   2007-2008 Fall
In the above, I note that there is no "Test-Major-BCA", probably because there is no way to disambiguate it from "Test-Major-COMPTEC" - at least no way with the above requirement pattern.
After seeing that, I considered the possibility of making the catalogs for the majors be the main catalogs, and making the program of study catalog be the additional catalog. I still may end up adopting this strategy. However, this is somewhat undesirable since it is more like performing major/minor audits rather than a degree audit. I think it might be confusing to the users.
Today, I tried what you suggested in your most recent reply, and added the following to my requirement pattern:
ReqPattern  Item  RefItem  Requirement
=============================
Test1         4       1           Major
However, this only made the problem worse, because now I get the subrequirements for both "Broadcast & Cinematic Arts" and "Computer Tech" under both nodes 3 and 4. I tried using both an evaluation path (CS - A516 - CG) and requirement selection, "SCG0", and they both produced the double result.
So, I am guessing that by "appropriate selections", you mean that we would have to custom develop ones that would be smart enough to only assign the set of subrequirement rules from one academic specialization (instead of all of them) to a particular specialization node in the pattern. Is this correct, or am I misunderstanding your suggestion?
Thanks again,
Eric