Retiring Baselined Items

When items are created, they are owned by the user who creates them and are obviously not part of a project baseline. Users can freely delete items they can access RW. If items are deleted, they are either removed from the database, or they are marked pending delete and added to the pending delete list from where they can be recovered, or un-deleted. Whether items are immediately deleted or placed on the pending delete list is a setting in the project schema, accessed in WorkBench by:

Admin → Project Setup → Options → Miscellaneous → Enable recovery of deleted items

The same setting is accessed in Toolset by:

Admin → Project Setup → Parameters → Misc → Enable recovery of deleted items

In contrast, when items are reviewed through the Cradle Configuration Management System (CMS) and placed into a baseline, they are part of the permanent result of the project. Such items will automatically migrate into (that is, appear within) all subsequent baselines that the project creates, unless they are changed in a later baseline. Such items are not deleted.

Ordinary users would normally have RO access to information in the latest baseline so they can refer it, create cross references to/from it, and develop new information based on it (for example, developing the next level of requirements).

Special privileges are needed to have RW access to baselined items, either BASELINE_RW or ACCESS_BYPASS privileges. These privileges are rarely, if ever, granted to any user in a project. If either of these privileges is used to modify baselined items (something that should be done as part of a formal Change Request and Change Task(s) raised through the Cradle CMS), then a record of any such changes are made:

• In the change histories of the affected item(s), if change histories are enabled
• In the project Configuration Log, if CM logging has been enabled

If a baselined item is no longer required and is not to be in subsequent baselines, then it can be retired using the Cradle CMS. Retiring an item changes its Status attribute to T and:

• Makes it inaccessible to ordinary users
• Prevents it migrating into any subsequent baselines

You can reinstate a retired item, which:

• Makes it accessible by ordinary users once more
• Allows it to migrate into any subsequent baselines

If a baselined item is deleted by a user with one of the above rarely-if-ever-granted privileges, then the item is NOT placed in the pending delete list. This is because the pending delete list is a mechanism does not apply to baselined items. The mechanism to allow the recovery of no-longer-required baselined items is to retire them.

The consequence of the above is that baselined items:

• Are accessible RO by ordinary users
• Are only accessible RW if a user has privileges that are not normally granted to any user
• Could only be deleted if a user has RW access to them
• Should never be deleted as they are a part of the project’s formal record
• If they are deleted, they are not added to the pending delete list and cannot be recovered
• Can be retired if no longer required
• Can be reinstated later if they are needed once more