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Room & Facility Management Requirements

Story Prefix: ROOM Feature Area: Room & Facility Management System Overview: university-reg-features.md Related docs: Course Management (section scheduling) → course-management-requirements.md (COURSE-004) | Accessibility → accessibility-requirements.md

ROOM-001: Add a Room or Facility​

As an Academic Staff member I want to add a room or facility to the system So that it can be assigned to course sections and its availability can be tracked

Acceptance Criteria​

  • Academic Staff and Administrators can create a room record with: building name, room number, campus (for multi-campus institutions), room type (classroom, lecture hall, lab, seminar room, online/virtual), seating capacity, and a list of available equipment/features (projector, whiteboard, video conferencing, lab benches, etc.)
  • Room identifiers (building + room number) must be unique; duplicates are rejected with an error
  • Accessibility attributes are recorded per room: wheelchair accessible, hearing loop, adjustable furniture (see accessibility-requirements.md)
  • A new room defaults to "Active" status and is immediately available for section scheduling (COURSE-004)

ROOM-002: Update Room Attributes​

As an Academic Staff member I want to update a room's attributes So that the scheduling system uses current and accurate information about capacity and equipment

Acceptance Criteria​

  • Academic Staff and Administrators can edit any attribute of an existing room record
  • Reducing a room's seating capacity below the enrollment count of any currently scheduled section triggers a warning listing the affected sections; the change can still be saved but the affected sections are flagged for review
  • Each update is logged with the editor's identity and timestamp
  • Instructors with sections assigned to a room receive a notification if that room's capacity or key equipment (e.g., lab equipment) changes materially

ROOM-003: View Room Availability​

As an Academic Staff member I want to see a room's schedule for a given day or week So that I can identify open time slots when assigning sections

Acceptance Criteria​

  • A room detail page displays a weekly calendar view showing all confirmed section bookings and any blocked periods (ROOM-005)
  • The view can be navigated forward/backward by week and can be filtered to any specific term
  • Open time slots are visually distinct from booked and blocked slots
  • Academic Staff can search for rooms available during a specified day/time range, optionally filtered by minimum capacity and required equipment
  • Results from an availability search show each matching room with its capacity, equipment, and a direct link to assign it to a section

ROOM-004: Enforce Room Scheduling Conflicts​

As an Academic Staff member I want the system to prevent me from scheduling two sections in the same room at the same time So that room assignments are always valid and no double-bookings occur

Acceptance Criteria​

  • When a section is assigned a room and time slot, the system checks all existing bookings for that room and term for day/time overlap
  • If a conflict is detected, the assignment is rejected and the conflicting section(s) are identified in the error message
  • The conflict check accounts for buffer time if a global or per-room buffer is configured (e.g., 10 minutes between classes for room turnover)
  • Administrators can override a conflict with a mandatory reason note; the override is logged in the audit trail (AUTH-010)
  • Online/virtual sections are not subject to room conflict checks

ROOM-005: Mark a Room as Unavailable​

As an Academic Staff member I want to block a room for a specific date range So that it cannot be scheduled for sections during maintenance, renovations, or special events

Acceptance Criteria​

  • Academic Staff and Administrators can create a blocked period for a room with: start date/time, end date/time, and a reason (Maintenance / Renovation / Special Event / Other)
  • Creating a blocked period that overlaps with an already-scheduled section displays a warning listing the affected sections; the block can be saved but affected sections are flagged as needing reassignment
  • Instructors with sections in a newly blocked room receive a notification advising them that their room assignment requires attention
  • Blocked periods are visible in the room's weekly calendar view (ROOM-003) and are visually distinguished from section bookings
  • Blocking can be removed by Academic Staff or Administrators before the block start date; removal is logged