Baseline (configuration Management) - Capabilities of Baselines

Capabilities of Baselines

While marking approval status covers the majority of uses for a baseline, baselines may also be established merely to signify the progress of work through the passage of time. In this case, a baseline is a visible stake through an endured collective effort, e.g. a developmental baseline. Baselines may also mark milestones; albeit some milestones also signify approval.

Baselines themselves are valued not only for their ability to identify the notable state of work product(s) but also provide particular importance in their ability to be retrieved. Once retrieved, the state of the work product(s) in that subset share the same significance in their history of changes that this significance was observed. The baseline is then regarded with poignant qualities (either favorably or disfavorably). For this reason, baseline identification, monitoring, and retrieval are critical to the success of configuration management. However, the ease of retrieving any given baseline varies according to the system employed for performing configuration management which may use a manual, automated, or hybrid approach. Once retrieved, the baseline may be compared to a particular configuration or another baseline.

Most baselines are established at a fixed point in time and serve to continue to reference that point (identification of state). However, some baselines are established to carry forward as a reference to the item itself regardless of any changes to the item. These latter baselines evolve with the progression of the work effort but continue to identify notable work products in the project.