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When I hear ?baseline,? I start looking for my
baseball bat, glove, and Cracker Jacks!
?Baseline" is jargon and usually refers to a standard
or to a first version of something. It should be
replaced with a more precise word.
BAD: "When a project is baselined, both the schedule
and the cost are baselined."
BETTER: "When a project is estimated, its schedule and
cost are set."
EVEN BETTER: "Project planning requires you to
establish a schedule and budget. If more time or money
is available, provide the thresholds in an appendix."
BAD: "The user can save many baselined versions."
BETTER: "Users can save the first iteration of each
version they create."
BAD: ?Our QA department is going to establish a
baseline for system performance.?
BETTER: ?Our QA department establishes minimum
performance standards for the system.?
Hope this helps,
Steven Brown
Senior Technical Writer
P.S. BTW, nothing is "inconsequential" when it comes
to word choice.
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