What Is A Configuration Baseline, And How Can It Help With Service Upgrades

What Is Configuration Baseline, And How Can It Help With Service Upgrades?

This article will help you get a solid understanding of the concept, function, and importance of having a configuration baseline. We will provide a comprehensive along with a brief analysis of the configuration baseline and how it helps with service upgrades.

Let’s begin by defining what a baseline is before we explain and explore the concept of configuration baseline.  A baseline is the documented condition of a component at a specific moment as a noted value. These are very useful when setting a foundation for a project. You may, for example, design a project and specify its beginning and conclusion dates, as well as intermediate delivery points and deadlines. This would be the planning stage, and once the planning is complete, a project baseline will be established. Several unanticipated hazards may arise later throughout the project’s execution, causing major delays and prolongation of the project’s delivery deadlines.

The actual timeframes and outcomes are constantly compared to a baseline to determine if the project is on track, ahead, or running late.  The fundamental feature of a baseline is that it establishes a timeframe against which outcomes may be compared, and a provider of IT services would be able to refer to it in the future in case a problem arises.

Let’s Define It: What Is A Configuration Baseline?

In other words, a configuration baseline is just a special form of a baseline for configuration management. A config baseline is a reference point for a configuration that has been officially agreed upon and is being handled as part of the change management process.

A company that provides IT services will provide a variety of services, and in order for all resources and services to be operational and of the highest quality, they need to be in accordance with one another. This way you can ensure the most effective and elevated service will be delivered to all of their clients.

Each product or service that an IT service provider offers will have a version of it. The configuration baseline, on the other hand, refers to the status of numerous configuration elements while they are operational.

Benefits Of Having A Configuration Baseline In Your Project

Configuration baselines may be used as a framework for new builds, editions, and adjustments since it relates to a functioning condition of numerous configuration objects’ releases and revisions. Let’s pretend the IT service provider has improved several systems all at once, and a service management issue arose as a result of the large-scale upgrade. If such IT service supplier possesses a configuration baseline from before the issues began, every configuration item may be returned to its original condition to resolve the issue simply and without extended analysis or worry.

How Does A Configuration Baseline Relate To A Performance Baseline?

Performance baselines are a collection of statistics or key performance indicators (KPIs) that must be met in order for one service to function properly. A performance baseline can also be quite connected to the configuration baseline so the two are often confused when project managers first learn about what is configuration baseline. Even before service is implemented, a number of performance benchmarks are decided upon. On a constant schedule, the service’s efficiency will be compared to the performance baseline in order to see if it’s currently up to par, in other words, if it’s still adding value to the organization as per the established specifications.

If modifications to the operations are created, modified, and launched, the performance measures should be tracked to evaluate if the updates do have an impact. Things will be okay in case the service has still been performing well. If somehow the performance indicators begin to deteriorate, it may be necessary to revert to the old edition or to re-update the latest edition to address the flaws. If the newest service’s upgrades degrade the effectiveness of current services, it’s advisable to revert to the previous configuration.

Component Metrics For The Configuration Baseline

Component metrics are among the indicators that are taken into account when it comes to configuration baselines. Individual components of an IT infrastructure are the target of component metrics. Utilization metrics are used to assess consumption and determine whether or not the services are running at maximum capacity. If operations are performing at their best following the introduction of a newly launched service configuration, it is safe to assume that everything is working very well and that the latest configuration may be incorporated into the revised configuration baseline.

Service Assets In Regards To Config. Management

Let’s go over the objectives of a service asset lifecycle, and the concept of configuration management once again. The aim of service asset and config management is to satisfy the company and customers’ control requirements and objectives. A secondary objective is to assist in the implementation of an effective and successful Project Management process and service procedure. Another objective is to reduce the number of difficulties with standards and quality. The ultimate aim is to make service assets, resources, IT setups, and capabilities as efficient as possible.

Each of these goals incorporates configuration baseline management. If modifications to such configuration cause service disruptions, the configuration will no longer satisfy the company and most of all, the customer’s goals and expectations. Furthermore, if modifications to the configuration become ineffective or inefficient as a result of a version’s upgrade, the secondary objective of service asset and config. management won’t be supported.

Another objective of service asset and configuration management is to reduce the quantity of compliance or quality concerns by maintaining a configuration version control vs a configuration baseline. Lastly, improving all IT settings by implementing a configuration baseline is the fourth aim of service asset and configuration management.

As a result, during a service transition period, in which service asset and configuration management have a big role, using a configuration baseline seems to be a vital step. There really is no way to protect and shield an IT service supplier from the harmful impacts of changes and modifications in previous IT configurations and editions without having a configuration baseline to fall back on should issues arise.

If the latest upgrade does not go as planned, IT service providers can use a configuration baseline to get back to a more functional state when their services were working at their maximum peak. Updates to services, on the other hand, should never have a negative impact on the IT configuration setup when project management processes and procedures are followed.

Summary of What is a Configuration Baseline

Let’s wrap it up by defining the basic concepts we learned in this article.

Baseline: The documented state of a component at a certain time as a reference value.

Configuration Baseline: A baseline for a configuration that has been officially approved, and is managed through the Change Management Process.

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