---
title: "Baselines"
canonical: "https://docs.getxray.app/space/XRAYCLOUD/1122762762/Baselines"
format: markdown
---
Table of Contents
> Macro (toc)
#### What if we want to test an online shopping checkout system, but need to edit it after completing some testing?
You've built a model with parameters like Product Category, Payment Method, Shipping Speed, Customer Type, Coupon Applied, and Gift Wrapping, and generated a set of 2-way scenarios.
![image]()
#### Your team has executed these scenarios, recorded results in your test management system, and built automation around them.
Now, requirements change. You need to add an **Order Insurance** parameter, and the business has decided to discontinue **Gift Card** as a payment method.
When you make these changes and regenerate scenarios, the entire scenario set changes. Rows get reordered, value combinations shift, and your test execution records no longer align with the scenarios in front of you.
This is where baselines can help.
#### What Baselines Do
A baseline designates a set of generated scenarios as a reference point. When you make changes to your model, the system preserves your baseline scenario combinations as much as possible while still achieving the required test coverage.
With a baseline set before making your changes, your original scenarios remain intact where possible. New parameter values are integrated into existing rows to achieve coverage, scenarios that used removed values are updated with valid alternatives, and additional scenarios are generated only as needed.
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## How to use Baselines
Let's walk through setting a baseline using our online checkout example.
### Establishing the Baseline
Click the Establish Baseline link in the header of the scenarios table.
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A confirmation dialog appears explaining when baselines are appropriate and the tradeoffs involved.
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Click **Choose Baseline** to continue.
### Select and Name your Baseline
The baseline selection dialog shows your previously generated scenario sets. Select the one you want to preserve, then optionally give it a descriptive name. In this example, we'll use the name "**Approved Scenarios - Sprint 1**".
![image]()
Click **Set Baseline** to activate it.
With this baseline in place, we'll now suppose that the system being tested evolved as described previously, with the addition of Order Insurance and the removal of Gift Cards from the list of payment methods.
First, add an Order Insurance parameter with values "None", "Basic", and "Premium", then remove "Gift Card" from the parameter Payment Method. The model now looks as follows:
![image]()
When you navigate back to the Scenarios screen, you'll notice that the original scenario combinations have been preserved where possible, the new Order Insurance values have been incorporated to achieve coverage, and scenarios that previously used Gift Card now use different payment methods.
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The warning banner shows the name of the current baseline, how many extra scenarios exist due to baseline preservation, and links to adjust the baseline or view the impact report.
## Comparing to the Baseline
You can use the **Compare to Baseline **toggle in the header of the scenarios table to see exactly what's changed.
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When enabled, the scenario table highlights differences. Green indicates new scenarios or values not present in the baseline. Orange indicates values that differ from the baseline. Red indicates baseline values that were skipped or removed.
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In our example, every cell in the **Order Insurance** column is green, because that parameter did not exist in the baseline. Additionally, some of the **Payment Method **cells are highlighted orange because these scenarios originally included the Gift Card parameter value, which was removed.
You can hover over any highlighted cell to see an explanation of why that parameter value changed.
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## Summarizing Changes to the Model
For a brief summary of all changes to the model, click View Impact Report in the baseline warning banner.
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This dialog shows counts of unchanged, modified, added, and removed scenarios, any parameters or parameter values that were added or removed, and a link to download the full report.
Click **Download Full Impact Report **to download an Excel spreadsheet with a more detailed analysis of the changes.
The **Table of Contents** links to each of the other worksheets in the report.
The **Model Change Impact **worksheet summarizes scenario counts and all model changes.
![image]()
The **Differences from Baseline** worksheet shows a side-by-side comparison of each scenario from the baseline to the current set of scenarios, with explanations.
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The **Baseline Scenarios** worksheet contains a complete copy of the original baseline scenarios, without extra annotations.
And finally, the **Current Scenarios **worksheet contains a complete copy of the current scenarios, also without annotations.
## Adjusting and Removing Baselines
Click **Adjust Baseline **in the baseline warning banner** **if you need to remove a baseline, or switch to a different one.
In the Set Baseline dialog, you can choose any baseline in the list to use as a new reference point for the scenarios.
If you need to remove the current baseline without setting a new one, click the red **Remove Baseline** button.
![image]()
When the baseline is removed, the scenarios will regenerate without preserving the baseline. This may result in a more efficient, smaller set of scenarios, as the need to preserve the exact original set as closely as possible is lifted.
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In our example, we happened to reduce the scenario set from 23 scenarios down to 19 by removing the baseline.
Support/Troubleshooting
If you have questions or technical issues, please [ contact the Support team via the Customer Portal (Jira service management)](https://jira.getxray.app/servicedesk/customer/portal/2/user/login?destination=portal%2F2%2Fcreate%2F28) or [send us a message using the in-app chat](https://getxraydocs.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/XRAYCLOUD/pages/44577312).