FA Mass Packaging Project Information Guide
Purpose: This guide is organized to provide an overview of the Mass Packaging top concerns. The intent is to provide a clear outline of all collected requirement information to aid in framing out next steps in developing a set of project activities to address the top college needs associated with Mass Packaging
Audience: Financial Aid College Community.
Introduction
Mass Packaging is a set of Oracle delivered *COBOL programs and corresponding **Equation Engines that drive the population selection and packaging rules for awarding student's financial aid grants, loans and waivers. The inventory of Equation Engines developed to support Mass Packaging are a mix of centrally maintained and locally defined equations.
*Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) - generic term for computer programming language.
**Equation Engine - can read tables and perform mathematical operations.
Each college has worked with FA Support (SBCTC) to create Mass Packaging Equation Engines that meet the colleges' needs locally for packaging; however the change requests that are of Top Priority for improving Mass Packaging all relate to the Mass Packaging Equation Engines that are centrally maintained.
Solutions developed to address the Top Issues may further be leveraged by colleges moving forward, to adopt packaging practice improvements provided at the completion of this work.
Mass Packaging Top Concerns
Now
Top Issue Description #4: Mass packaging looks at high school information on the ISIR so it will package Running Start students who have a valid ISIR loaded into the system.
SBCTC Response: If a student has a valid ISIR on file, and they've completed high school - the system is working as designed there is nothing to prevent a student in this scenario from getting processed. Running Start students can submit a valid FAFSA and get packaged. Need to come up with a process to prevent Running Start Student Groups from being packaged or a process to stop catch them at disbursements. Until a solution is found, clients should review query: CTC_FA_RUNNING_START_AWARDED
Related Service Desk Ticket #94306, also noted in SDT#98472.
Top Issue Description #5: Mass packaging fully packages those in the incarcerated Student Group (SDOC) - when they should have limited aid.
SBCTC Response: It is best practice for the staff person reviewing the students file to review the Student Groups displayed on the Financial Aid Status page. In the event this is overlooked, there are queries that can be run to identify students awarded aid based on student group: QCS_FA_STDNTGRP_SAP_STATUS and QCS_FA_GRP_DISB_AWARD.
SBCTC Work In Progress: FA Customer Support team developed a process for awarding incarcerated students based on their eligibility. Additional work will be completed in the future to prevent these students groups from receiving aid they do not qualify for. The work in progress is to prevent these student groups from receiving aid they do not qualify for when packaging (via retrieve or in mass).
Related Service Desk Ticket #124814, also noted in SDT#98472.
- Requirements Definition, Solution Design: August 2023
- Development/Configuration: August - September 2023
- Function (Internal Testing): September- October 2023
- Working Group Informed: 10/18/2023
- College Demo: 11/14/2023
- College User Acceptance Testing (UAT): 11/15/2023-12/4/2023
- Targeted PRD Release Date: 12/12/2023
- Training: N/A
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Reference Docs/Links:
- Current SDT #177233 & Original SDT #94306, #98472 and #124814
- FA Demo Webex Recording 11/14/2023
- Demo Slide Deck 11/14/2023; UAT Slides #21 - #24 (see below):
Future Item
Top Issue Description #3: Loan Proration does not work for students attending less than 9-month loan period.
Research Needed for Possible Solution: Possibly a report. Can be mitigated through business process. *Related Service Desk Ticket #8807.
Completed
Top Issue Description #2: The packaging process does not package CBS for Bachelor degree students accurately. At the time custom WCG and CBS pages built, including CBS for BA degree was not considered a requirement.
- Requirements Definition, Solution Design: April - May 2023
- Development/Configuration: May - June 2023
- Function (Internal Testing): June - July 2023
- Working Group Informed: 6/21/2023
- College Demo: 8/15/2023
- College User Acceptance Testing (UAT): 8/16/2023 - 8/25/2023
- Targeted PRD Release Date: 8/31/2023
- Training: N/A
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Reference Docs/Links:
- Current SDT Ticket #168886 & Original SDT # 98472
- FA Demo Webex Recording 8/15/2023
- Demo Slide Deck 8/15/2023; UAT Slides #18 - #21 (see below):
Top Issue Description #1: Washington College Grant (WCG) is not mass packaged based on enrollment level and will award full time amounts.
- Requirements Definition, Solution Design: January - February 2023
- Development/Configuration: February 2023
- Functional (Internal) Testing: March 2023
- Working Group Informed: 4/19/2023
- College Demo: 4/11/2023
- College User Acceptance Testing (UAT): signed off by five colleges on 4/17/2023
- PRD Release Date: 4/27/2023
- Training: refer to email on 5/3/2023 which include open Webex Support Sessions from 5/24/2023 - 7/26/2023
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Reference Docs/Links:
- UAT
- FA Demo Webex Recording 4/11/2023
- Current SDT Ticket #163277 & Original SDT # 98472
Contact Info
Have questions about Mass Packaging projects? Contact Stephanie Casino at [email protected].
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