Baselines

Baselines are views of a project consisting of all data from all disciplines saved at a particular state.

New Baselines can be added at any time, but extract databases linked to a Baseline can only be created after Interdisciplinary Project Databases have been created.

To configure Baselines, select Utilities > Inter Disciplinary Project Data > Baseline from on the Tools tab. The Baseline window is displayed:

The window lists any Baselines that have already been set up.

The Baseline Databases section initially base name that will be used to generate the names of Baseline databases and Multiple Databases (MDBs), and the Baseline Team, as described below. The date and time that the Interdisciplinary Project data was created is also displayed.

To create a baseline, click New. The new baseline is then created and listed in the window. For example:

A row of fields is added to the window in which default values for the new Baseline are displayed. Modify the default values as required.

For a Global project, Baselines are created at the target location as specified during the interdisciplinary project creation process (Inter-Discipline Project Creation).

Enter the unique identifier of the new Baseline in the Name field. The field does not support spaces. They will be automatically removed if entered.

In the ID (Required) field enter a unique code for the Baseline. This will be used in automatically generated database and MDB names. It must be unique and must not contain symbols or spaces.

Enter a description in the Description field.

The Created field displays the date and time that the session in which the Baseline was created was saved to the database (not the date and time that the New was clicked to create the Baseline). This cannot be modified by the user.

To create a Team (if Baseline Databases have not been created before), Databases and MDBs for Baselines, select it and click Create Databases.

During database creation, any information regarding the progress of the procedure and any error messages are displayed in the Baseline Databases section of the window. A Details link will provide access to a text log file of all the messages.

Once databases etc. have been created for a Baseline, a green tick is displayed next to its row in the window.

The first time that Baseline databases are created, a Team is created with a name of <base name>BL. This Team is used by all baselines, so it is only created when the first Baseline databases are created.

Extract databases for each Discipline that will be included in the MDB for that Baseline are created (there are no Primary DB or maturity level extracts for a Baseline). Database names are formatted as follows: <Base name>_<Discipline code>_<Baseline ID>.

An MDB for the Baseline is also created with a name of <Base name>_<Baseline ID>_BL. The MDB contains the Baseline Extracts and the databases from the common database set used in the Discipline MDBs.

For a Global project, databases are created at the target location as specified during the interdisciplinary project creation process. If the target location is the hub, the MDB is created there as well.

If the target location is a Satellite, the MDB must be created at that location. Access the Baseline window at the location. Instead of Create Databases, a Create Databases will be displayed. Click this to create the MDB at the Satellite location.