Baseline sets and Baselines

Hi guys,

I think I figured out a way to do revision tracking and version tracking. I am not sure whether this works or not but I am going to try it.

So I was playing around with the baseliner GUI and in the middle it has 0.0, 0.1, 1.0, which you get to choose the increments. There's also a suffix.

My understanding of baseline sets is that it's essentially a collection of the same baselines for a module. Is this right?

If so, then I can baseline the module with version tracking with increments 0.1...when a big change is made I baseline it to the set revision tracking with increments 1.0...with appropriate suffixes.

So I start off with 2 baseline set defs - Revision and Version.

What do you think?

TooDiff
TooDifficult - Mon Jan 24 19:51:30 EST 2011

Re: Baseline sets and Baselines
TooDifficult - Mon Jan 24 20:08:37 EST 2011

My bad, a baseline set is version tracking for a whole group of modules and their relationships. Probably doesn't apply to my baselining for a single module just yet.

But what do you think of Major and Minor baselining for Revision and Version tracking?

-TooDiff

Re: Baseline sets and Baselines
SystemAdmin - Mon Jan 24 21:33:25 EST 2011

DOORS version labelling syntax: <Major Num>.<Minor Num> Suffix

There are no hard and fast rules, but as a general convention, you reserve Major version number for releases that represent an important milestone\delivery of some sort, for example, the release of a specification at the end of a major development review cycle such as a System Requirements Review (SRR) or the release of a new version of a product to the market. You reserve Minor version number for draft type releases that are in between major releases, for example, a series of incremental draft versions in the lead up to a major release.

As for the Suffix - this is optional and can be useful for giving a version number some context such as indicating the name of the review cycle that the release is associated with (SRR, PDR, CDR) or the code name given to a new version of a product release (e.g. Apple gives their new products code names like Tiger, Snow leopard etc)

A Baseline Set is a group of 2 or more baselined modules rolled into a single version label. This includes capturing a version of the links between the member modules of the baseline set. Very handy for preserving the status of modules and links at key project milestone points such as SRR, PDR, CDR, Acceptance Stages.


Paul Miller
Melbourne, Australia

Re: Baseline sets and Baselines
TooDifficult - Mon Jan 24 22:06:59 EST 2011

SystemAdmin - Mon Jan 24 21:33:25 EST 2011
DOORS version labelling syntax: <Major Num>.<Minor Num> Suffix

There are no hard and fast rules, but as a general convention, you reserve Major version number for releases that represent an important milestone\delivery of some sort, for example, the release of a specification at the end of a major development review cycle such as a System Requirements Review (SRR) or the release of a new version of a product to the market. You reserve Minor version number for draft type releases that are in between major releases, for example, a series of incremental draft versions in the lead up to a major release.

As for the Suffix - this is optional and can be useful for giving a version number some context such as indicating the name of the review cycle that the release is associated with (SRR, PDR, CDR) or the code name given to a new version of a product release (e.g. Apple gives their new products code names like Tiger, Snow leopard etc)

A Baseline Set is a group of 2 or more baselined modules rolled into a single version label. This includes capturing a version of the links between the member modules of the baseline set. Very handy for preserving the status of modules and links at key project milestone points such as SRR, PDR, CDR, Acceptance Stages.


Paul Miller
Melbourne, Australia

Yep that's what I grasped so far I think.

So if you keep running that create(Major,Minor,Suffix) function, does DOORS know to increment it?

If you use the GUI it helps you add onto current x.x number.

Wonder if it does so for that function too?

-TooDiff

Re: Baseline sets and Baselines
SystemAdmin - Mon Jan 24 22:45:02 EST 2011

TooDifficult - Mon Jan 24 22:06:59 EST 2011
Yep that's what I grasped so far I think.

So if you keep running that create(Major,Minor,Suffix) function, does DOORS know to increment it?

If you use the GUI it helps you add onto current x.x number.

Wonder if it does so for that function too?

-TooDiff

TooDifficult wrote: So if you keep running that create(Major,Minor,Suffix) function, does DOORS know to increment it?

.
I'm not sure where you got the function call "create(Major,Minor,Suffix)".

The function syntax is create(Baseline b, string verDescription)

The baseline handle "b" can be either nextMajor [ string suffix ] or nextMinor [ string suffix ]. The suffix is optional.

verDescription is the brief description that you can include to describe the version.

Example: If your current Maj.Min baseline version label is = 4.2

create(nextMajor "SRR", "") will create a new baseline with the version label = 5.0 SRR

create(nextMinor "SRR", "Brief description of version") will create a new baseline with the text entered into the baseline description text box and version label = 4.3 SRR
Paul Miller
Melbourne, Australia

Re: Baseline sets and Baselines
TooDifficult - Mon Jan 24 23:11:32 EST 2011

SystemAdmin - Mon Jan 24 22:45:02 EST 2011
TooDifficult wrote: So if you keep running that create(Major,Minor,Suffix) function, does DOORS know to increment it?

.
I'm not sure where you got the function call "create(Major,Minor,Suffix)".

The function syntax is create(Baseline b, string verDescription)

The baseline handle "b" can be either nextMajor [ string suffix ] or nextMinor [ string suffix ]. The suffix is optional.

verDescription is the brief description that you can include to describe the version.

Example: If your current Maj.Min baseline version label is = 4.2

create(nextMajor "SRR", "") will create a new baseline with the version label = 5.0 SRR

create(nextMinor "SRR", "Brief description of version") will create a new baseline with the text entered into the baseline description text box and version label = 4.3 SRR


Paul Miller
Melbourne, Australia

Hi Paul,

Yeah I was putting it in terms of pseudocode. What I meant was the nextMajor functions, etc.

I got the baseliner to work. So that's all good. However I tried accessing the baseline.dxl that DOORS has...it's encrypted. I'm not sure how I can load the last module that it closed. Baselining something automatically closes the module, so how do I mimic what DOORS does? DOORS manages to reopen the latest version of the module that you just baselined.

Thanks,

TooDiff

Re: Baseline sets and Baselines
SystemAdmin - Mon Jan 24 23:36:49 EST 2011

TooDifficult - Mon Jan 24 23:11:32 EST 2011
Hi Paul,

Yeah I was putting it in terms of pseudocode. What I meant was the nextMajor functions, etc.

I got the baseliner to work. So that's all good. However I tried accessing the baseline.dxl that DOORS has...it's encrypted. I'm not sure how I can load the last module that it closed. Baselining something automatically closes the module, so how do I mimic what DOORS does? DOORS manages to reopen the latest version of the module that you just baselined.

Thanks,

TooDiff

DOORS manages to reopen the latest version of the module that you just baselined

Firstly - As far as I know, the module handle context after a baseline has been created via DXL should still be that the baselined module is still current (don't have time to try right now - others to confirm please)

However, be careful with what you perceive to be the latest version - DOORS has not opened the latest version, it has opened a work in progress (WIP) version. The WIP version is a checked-out editable copy of the last (latest) version to be baselined. Every time you double click on a DOORS module to open it, you are opening the WIP version which can be edited. But don't confuse it with being the latest version because for as long as it's a WIP version, it's not a stable version as it can be modified at any time (we're now starting to move into the practices of Configuration Management (CM)).

This is a feature of DOORS that I don't like - the DOORS explorer should have features similar to a CM tool where you can choose between opening a specific baselined version(such as the latest version), or based on your access rights, have the ability to check-out\check-in and modify a version


Paul Miller
Melbourne, Australia