Purpose

To allow the entry and maintenance of milestones relating to a research Candidature

SubSystem

Research

Establishing and monitoring milestones enable research candidates, their supervisors and administrative staff to maintain up-to-date records about progress and initiate action at different stages of a research candidature.

The types of milestones used in this process are established by the institution, through RESF3110. The institution-defined Milestone Statuses are maintained in RESF31F0. This document uses the system status names. A default set of Milestones (for a Course Version) which can be applied to most candidatures in that course, is recorded in RESF3231.

Features of the Form

The context block on the form is dynamically labeled and reflects the admission/enrolment status of the candidate. The label will read either 'Admission Course Application' or 'Student Course Attempt'.

OVERRIDE Lamp:

• This displays against the Milestone Description field, when the default description (recorded in RESF3110) is changed.
• Another displays against the Notification Days, if values entered are different from those that are recorded as part of the Milestone Type (in RESF3110).

Accessing This Form

This form can be accessed from either RESF3211 (Research Candidature Details) or RESF3700 (Maintain Thesis Details) using the Milestones navigation button on these forms. For any given candidature, one set of milestones are created/exist and this set can be accessed from either form, where that candidature record is the currently displayed one.

If the form is accessed directly, the required candidature details are retrieved, by querying in the context block.

The Candidature - Admission Course Application block contains:

• Person ID
• Sex
• Date Of Birth
• Min Submission
• Max
• Course
• Location
• Att Mode
• Att Type

The Milestone block contains:

• Milestone Type
• Due Date
• Milestone Status
• Date Reached
• Include Reached Milestones check box
• Description

  Preceding Milestone sub block

  • Type
  • Status
  • Due Date
  • Comments

  Notification Days sub block

  • Imminent
  • Reminder
  • Re-Reminder

Default Course Milestones button

Rules/Notes:

Validations include:

• Warning when a milestone status is changed from any other status back to one with a system status of ‘PLANNED’
• Milestone Due Date cannot be changed to a date less than the Candidature Research Commencement Date
• Warning when a milestone Due Date is changed to a date less than SYSDATE.

Milestones can be back-dated.

This form is used to record and monitor milestones for a Candidature.

The Candidature details displayed in the first block on the form provide the context for the milestones in the second block.

Establishing Milestones for this Candidature:

The Course Default Milestones can be applied to this candidature, by clicking on the Default Course Milestones button. This creates an entry for each Milestone from the default set, within these rules:

• For an Admission Course Application, all milestones in the default set are inserted.
• For a Student Course Attempt, milestones only default if the calculated Due Date is equal to or after the current date.
• The Milestone Status for each defaults to the system status of 'PLANNED'.

Any milestone established in this way can be edited and/or deleted if required. Re-running the process to insert Course Default Milestones re-inserts any previously deleted from this Candidature, if the calculated Due Date is equal to or later than the current date.

Rules/Notes:

Details cannot be edited in the context block.

Person ID and Course fields can be queried (when the form is accessed directly)

If no Course Default Milestones can be determined (for the context course version), a warning displays.

If all Course Default Milestones have previously been applied, a warning displays, when an attempt to re-apply them is made.

If a 'CLOSED' milestone type exists in the Course Default set, it is not entered against a candidature.

Where more than one institution-defined status maps to the system status 'PLANNED', no default value is inserted in the Milestone Status field, except where defaulting the Course Default Milestones set.

A Milestone can only be deleted if it has the status of 'PLANNED'.

• For milestones with Offset Days recorded, the Due Date is determined by counting the number of offset days past the Research Commencement Date (from RESF3211). e.g. If the student's Research Commencement Date is 01/03/2017 and the Offset Days is 90, a single milestone record will be created for that Milestone Type and its Due Date would be 31/05/2017.
  
• For milestones with a Date Alias recorded, the Due Date(s) are calculated by determining the Absolute Value of the Date Alias for all open Academic Calendars with instances of that Date Alias. e.g. If WINTER-REVIEW is defined for the 2017 Academic Calendar with an Absolute Value of 30/6/2017 and for the (also open) 2018 Academic Calendar with an Absolute Value of 30/6/2018, then two milestone records will be created for that milestone type, with Due Dates a year apart. Note: The Calendar Type used is that of the associated SCA.

Additional Milestones can be added manually by entering Milestone Type, Due Date and Milestone Status. The Milestone Type and Due Date must create a unique milestone for this candidature.

The Overflow area displays the Description and three Notification Days values. These are attributes of the context Milestone Type, but can be overridden for this Candidature's Milestone. A Lamp displays if override entries are made. Deleting any override values means default values are re-inserted.

Notification Days are for information only at this stage. In a future release of Callista, further functionality is to be developed relating to Notification Days (for example initiation of correspondence between supervisor and candidate).

The Comments field is available so notes can be entered to assist in the monitoring process.

A Closed Milestone Type cannot be entered.

An entered Due Date cannot be a past date.

Notification Days values can only be changed if the Milestone Status is 'PLANNED' or 'RE-PLANNED'.

Where the Milestone Type has no default Notification Days values, values can be entered for this milestone.

• A value cannot be entered for Imminent days, which would have required notification prior to the current date.
• A value cannot be entered for Re-Reminder days, if not value exists for Reminder days.

Reminder functionality is to be implemented in a later delivery set.

Milestones can be linked through entering Preceding Milestone details. A single precedent can be created for the context milestone. The preceding Milestone Type must be selected from the List of Values (which displays only those Candidature Milestones which can be a precedent i.e. have a Due Date earlier than the context milestone).

Setting these precedents affects the editing and deletion of Milestones.

To delete a Preceding Milestone relationship, select the Preceding Milestone type and use the keyboard Delete key. (Using the Toolbar button deletes the context milestone and the precedence relationship.)

Rules/Notes:

Where the current Milestone is set as a Preceding Milestone:

• A warning displays if the Due Date is changed making the current milestone due later than its successor.
• Changing the Due Date of the Milestone automatically updates the Preceding Milestone Due Date field.
• A Milestone cannot be deleted if it is the precedent of another.

Monitoring progress in achieving Milestones is done by updating the Status of the Milestone.

• When the status 'PLANNED' or 'RE-PLANNED' is changed to 'ACHIEVED' or 'FAILED' , the Date Reached defaults to the current date.
• Where the status is altered to 'RE-PLANNED', the Due Date must be changed as well.
• A 'FAILED' status can be updated to 'ACHIEVED'
• An ACHIEVED status can be reset to PLANNED.

Any change to the Status of a Milestone creates an entry in the Milestone Status History. The History entries are displayed in descending Date/Time order. History entries cannot be altered or deleted.

Milestones that have been reached can be included or excluded from display, by querying with the Include Reached Milestones indicator set as required. This indicator is selected as the default.

Rules/Notes:

The default Date Reached can be backdated.

Date Reached must be set if the Status is set to 'ACHIEVED' or 'FAILED'.

A warning displays if the status of a milestone is changed to 'ACHIEVED' or 'FAILED' when a preceding milestone still has the status 'PLANNED' or 'RE-PLANNED'.