The organization must decide on the appropriate category or categories for an assessment. A category defines the classification set for the assessment factors. Most factors for an assessment will have the same classification values so that all the results for the factors can be compared easily and the factor results can be graphed together. For such assessments, there will be one category defined and that category is associated with the relevant classifications. When a factor is created it is assigned to a category and the category then defines the applicable classifications for that factor. Classification values cannot be changed for individual factors, they can only be modified for the category and then these changes will be applicable to all factors that are assigned to that category.
A more complex assessment may require multiple categories if there is a requirement to support multiple classification sets. For example, a Self Sufficiency assessment may have some factors which are categorized as barrier factors such as a Substance Abuse factor and have the classifications, Vulnerable, Engaged, Progressing and Self-Sufficient. This assessment may also have need factors such as an Education factor which has different classifications for example, high, medium, low.
Key things to note are that an assessment factor can be assigned to just one category, and the factor adopts the classifications defined for that category. If an assessment defines multiple categories, the factors for an assessment may have different categories to each other, so these factors will be classified differently. These assessment factors cannot be easily compared as they are measured differently and the results will be displayed in a list format rather than a graph.
Organizations should carefully consider whether multiple classifications sets are applicable to an assessment and should understand the implications of this, particularly if there is a requirement to compare the results of assessment factors.
The categories applicable to an assessment are specified when the assessment definition is created. These categories can be updated after the assessment definition has been created.