a fixed baseline is retrieved, the state of the work product(s) in that subset share the same significance in their history of changes; this allows project leaders to compare the relative progress of single parts of a project to the project as a whole, which allows project leaders to identify individual items that lag or lead in progress toward better functionality or performance. For this reason, baseline identification, monitoring, and retrieval are critical to the success of Configuration Management, and ultimately, project quality. Conversely, the Configuration of a project includes all of its baselines, the status of the Configuration, all audits, and all metrics collected. The current Configuration refers to the current status, current audit, and current metrics. Similarly, but less common, a baseline may refer to all items in a project. This may include the latest revision of all items or only specific revisions of all items in the project, depending on the nature of the baseline, dynamic or fixed respectively. Once retrieved, the baseline may be compared to a particular Configuration or another baseline. In Configuration Management, the Configuration of a project is not the same as a baseline in the project but the two could coincide. Fixed baselines often coincide with or signify project milestones, such as the set of items at a particular certifying review. Some examples include: Functional Baseline: initial specifications established; contract, etc. Allocated Baseline: state of work products after requirements are approved Developmental Baseline: state of work products amid development Product Baseline: contains the releasable contents of the project others, based upon proprietary business practices Application Though common in software revision control systems as labels' or tags, the existence of baselines is found in several other technology-related domains. Baselines can be found in UML modeling systems and business rule management systems, among others. In addition to the field of hardware and software engineering, baselines can be found in medicine (e.g. monitoring health progress), politics (e.g. statistics), physics and chemistry (e.g. observations and changes), finance (e.g. budgeting), and others. Baselining configuration items In the process of performing Configuration Management, configuration items (or work products) may be assigned a baseline so as to establish them as having a certain status. In this sense, to baseline a work product may require certain change(s) to the work product to ensure it conforms to the characteristics associated with the baseline referenced. This varies upon context, but in many