You can create baselines for a variety of purposes. Dimensions provides various categories of baseline that use different methods of determining which item revisions they include and whether they contain more than one revision of the same item. There are a number of categories of baseline that meet particular purposes. These are:
Tip: Create a tip baseline when you want to freeze the state of a project or stream at a particular point. A tip baseline captures the latest revisions of a stream or project and any sub-projects that are related to it.
Release: Create a release baseline to define and build a test or release configuration of the product. A release baseline uses a template to control the rules that are used to determine which item revisions are included in the baseline.
Revised: Create a revised baseline from an existing one when you are updating the versions of the files using related requests to track the updates. A revised baseline has basically the same contents as the baseline it is created from except for any item revisions, which have been removed, replaced or added using requests or requirements related as Affected, or in-Response-to.
Merged: Create a merged baseline to compare two baselines to see how the product has developed during the period the design baselines were created.
Design: Use a design baseline to compare two baselines to see how the product has developed during the period the design baselines were created.
Archive: An archive baseline is a special release baseline that you use in conjunction with the Archive and Retrieval Tool.
The following table summarizes these categories
|
Category |
Requires a template? |
Only one revision of each item? |
|
Tip |
N |
Y |
|
Release |
Y |
Y |
|
Revised |
|
Y |
|
Merged |
|
Y |
|
Design |
|
|
|
Archive |
|
|
Creating a Baseline Scoped by Design Part
A design baseline represents the current product design structure, or a selected part of it, within the scope of the current project/stream or design part, including all the revisions for each item.
A design baseline does not use a baseline template.
Design baselines provide managers with audit capabilities. You can compare two baselines to see how the project/stream has developed during the period the baselines were created.
Developers can continue to modify items included in a design baseline.
Dimensions includes the following in a design baseline:
The design part defined in the project/stream and all its descendent design parts, even if they are suspended.
The part change status (PCS) of the design part.
All item revisions that are either owned or used by any of the design parts.
The current status of each item.
IMPORTANT! A design baseline contains suspended design parts but does not include item revisions that are checked out.
A release baseline represents a snapshot of a design part or a project/stream at a particular time. A release baseline uses a baseline template that selects a single version of each item that matches the criteria in the template, and that is also contained in the specified design part or project/stream. For example, you can create a release baseline that includes the following:
All EXE (executable) item types that are at the RELEASED state.
Any OBJ (object) and SRC (source) item types that are used to build the EXEs.
These rules define a baseline template. For more information, see the Appendix Baseline and Release Templates in the Process Configuration Guide.
Create a release baseline to define and build a test, or release, of your product.
Dimensions includes the following in a release baseline:
The design part defined in the project/stream and all its descendent design parts, even if they are suspended.
The part change status (PCS) of each design part.
All item revisions that are either owned or used by any of the design parts, restricted by the baseline template.
The current status of each item.
You cannot delete item revisions that belong to a release baseline unless the release baselines containing them are deleted. However, you can action an item revision that is included in a release baseline. You can also create a new revision from an item revision belonging to a baseline.
You can revise a release baseline or merge two release baselines.
A tip baseline consists of a snapshot of the tip revisions of all the items in a project or stream regardless of what design parts those items belong to. A tip baseline does not use a baseline template. It can be considered as a type of release baseline that is scoped by project/stream as opposed to a design part. If a project has sub-projects attached to it, then a separate baseline will be created for each of those sub-projects and will be related to the tip baseline. If any baselines are attached as a sub-project, they will also be related to the tip baseline.
An archive baseline is a restricted variant of a release baseline that uses a baseline template that includes all of the revisions of some or all of the item types.
You can use the resulting baseline to preserve the product at a milestone using Dimensions ART. You cannot use an archive baseline to revise baselines, merge baselines, or for any configuration build or release purposes.
For more information on Dimensions ART, see the System Administration Guide.
A revised baseline consists of the contents of a release baseline where item revisions have been replaced, added, or removed based on their relationship to a group of specified requests or requirements.
For example if you create a revised baseline and specify requests CR_1 and CR_2 for the Update baseline using field, and CR_3 and CR-4 for the Remove from baseline field then:
Item revisions related as In-response-to CR_1 and CR_2 will replace revisions of the same items in the baseline.
Revisions of items not already in the baseline that are related In-response-to CR_1 and CR_2 will be added to the baseline provided they fall within the scope of the original baseline (the design part/project/stream and the baseline template).
Item revisions related as Affected to CR_3 and CR_4 will be removed from the baseline.
For more details, see About Revising and Merging Baselines.
A merged baseline consists of one or more release baselines merged together so as to contain only one item revision for each item, and to include only items belonging to the specified parent design part for the new merged baseline. The baselines that are being merged must contain only one revision of each item.
NOTE You can also merge changes from a baseline into a target stream, for details see Merging Changes across Streams.
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