RE: "baseline"

[SIANNON -at- VISUS -dot- JNJ -dot- com]

I'm going to have to agree with those who've stated the term *can* be used, 
even as a verb, as long as it is defined clearly for the audience. I've 
heard the term often over the past five years, including the verbed form, 
used to indicate the action of establishing or recording an initial or 
foundational reading/metric (i.e., baseline, used as a noun) for a system's 
performance or configuration, against which irregularities or changes can 
be measured. (I have *not* heard it in the straight past tense before. I've 
heard it as "subject-did baseline-object", but not 
"subject-baselined-object".)

I've most recently heard it in the context of establishing a baseline of a 
database's DDL against which later DDL exports can be compared to verify 
the elements changed (used in lieu of, and in comparison with, automatic 
change tracking and version control features while they're still being 
tested), expressed as "We need to baseline the existing DDL, and then run 
periodic exports throughout the development process for comparison."

Now, your audience may differ from mine, so take this opinion with whatever 
grains of pretzel salt you deem necessary...

Shauna
------------------------
...Random Technophile...

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