Baselines
Enterprise Architect provides a facility to 'Baseline' (snapshot) a model branch at a particular point in time for later comparison with the current Package state.
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Baselines
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Baseline comparison is most useful for determining the changes made to the model during development compared to some Baseline saved at a crucial point - for example the completion of a phase or version iteration.
More than one Baseline can be stored against a single Enterprise Architect Package.
Baselines are particularly useful during requirements management to check for changes, additions and deletions that have occurred since the start of the current work phase; knowing how a model has changed is an important part of managing change and the overall development process.
Baselines are stored within the model in compressed XML format; you can save a Baseline to an external XML file for storage or archive, or for distributing to other users working on models derived from a master project.
Baselines are generally used in conjunction with the Compare utility.
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The Compare Utility (Diff)
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Scenario
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A typical scenario for using Baselines would be:
| · | Create the base model branch to a sufficient point to create a Baseline (checkpoint); create and store the Baseline as Version 0.1a |
| · | As work continues on development, managers and developers can check the current model branch against the Baseline for important modifications, additions and deletions; the Compare utility can be invoked from the Baseline dialog to check the current model branch against the stored version |
| · | As required, minor Baselines can be created to check recent progress; these 'temporary Baselines' are useful for managing change when a lot of work is being done and it is important to only see what has changed in, for example, the last 24 hours |
| · | At sign-off or the move to a new version/phase, a major Baseline can be created to capture the new state of the model
Minor Baselines created earlier can be deleted if required to save space |
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Manage Baselines
Create Baselines
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Considerations
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| · | Baselines are based on the GUID or unique ID of a particular Package: |
| · | Enterprise Architect checks for that ID as the root element within the XML document being used as a Baseline |
| · | When you export a Package to XML, the Package you export is the root element; likewise when you create a Baseline, the current Package is the root Package of the XML Baseline |
| · | When you save information in a version control system, the current version-controlled Package is again the root Package of the document |
| · | It is not useful to create a Baseline by importing an XMI Package file created by version controlling a Package that itself contains version-controlled child Packages; that type of XMI Package file contains stubs for the child Packages, not full information on the child Packages and elements |
| · | If a Package under version control forms part of a Baseline, and that Package is checked in to the model, you cannot merge the original data from the Baseline into that Package |
| · | XML files must be in the same format used by the Baseline engine - currently the UML 1.3 XMI 1.1 format (plus Enterprise Architect extensions), which contains all the information necessary to reconstruct a UML model, even a UML 2.x model |
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Notes
| · | The Baseline facility is available in the Corporate, Business and Software Engineering, System Engineering and Ultimate editions of Enterprise Architect |
| · | The Compare utility is available in the Professional edition of Enterprise Architect, as well as in the Corporate and extended editions above |
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