PeopleSoft 9.2 feature review - New Value List types

Value lists are an extremely useful setup option available in Time and Labor. Value Lists can be used to create a list of certain setup values (like list of departments, companies, workgroups, shifts etc) which can be then used in custom programs and rules to check if the value being processed belongs to a certain 'list of values'. Some examples of the use of value lists are: check if the employee being processed falls in a specific list of departments, check if the employee has reported a TRC that falls in a specific list of TRCs etc. As you can deduce from the examples, the advantage of having a value list is that it eliminates the need to hardcode a list of values in code and the list can be extended/maintained from PIA when needed. These features make value lists a highly useful tool in developing efficient rules and customisations in Time and Labor. For an application of value lists in reporting, refer here.
One of the limitations of the value list functionality has been that lists can be built only for certain specific pre-defined fields. In v9.1, there are 17 fields on which a list can be built. Examples are Company, Pay group, Grade, Step, Punch Type, Workgroup, Jobcode, Deptid etc.
In v9.2, Oracle has added 9 more fields in the purview of value lists. The new fields are:

• Attendance Violations (these are attendance actions from attendance programs in Time and Labor)
• Absence Take
• Compensatory Time Off Plan
• Benefit Plan
• Reported Time Status
• Payable Time Status
• Absence Status
• Exception
• Severity (this is severity of exception)

Implementation consultants can now make use of the above 9 fields to create values lists in 9.2, while creating rules or customisations.
Post-Note:
What prompted Oracle to add these new fields?
Most of these 9 fields are used in the new Time and Labor Alert framework. I am sure that it is the necessity to build Alerts based on the above fields that lead to them being added as new list type options. 

If you have questions or need more details on the new features in PeopleSoft HCM v9.2, mail into jiju@hroiconsulting.com