Baseline II : control and applicability

Baselining Configuration Items

In the process of performing configuration management, configuration items (or work products) may be baselined so as to establish them with a certain status to interested parties. In this sense, to baseline a work product may require certain change(s) to the work product to ensure its conformance to the characteristics associated with the baseline referenced. This varies upon context, but in many cases this has the implication that the work product is "reset" to an initial (possibly inherently approved) state from which work may proceed.

Baseline Control

In many environments, baselines are controlled such that certain subsequent activities against work products in that baseline are either prohibited or permitted. These activities are carefully selected and controlled, and again, depending upon the configuration management system, are also monitored. Consequently, baselines are ordinarily subjected to configuration management audits. Audits may include an examination of specific actions performed against the baseline, identification of individuals involved in any action, an evaluation of change within the baseline, (re-)certification for approval, accounting, metric collection, comparison to another baseline, or all of these.

Applicability

The existence of baselines is not limited only to revision control systems. Baselines are also found in UML modelling systems and business rule management systems, among others.

In addition to the field of Hardware and Software Engineering, baselines can be found in Medicine (e.g. monitoring health progress), Politics (e.g. statistics), Physics & Chemistry (e.g. observations and changes), and others.

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