In Oracle, new plans are not used unless they have been validated. The DBA can validate plans at any time or schedule validation during the maintenance window. The optimizer checks if the new plan is equal to or better than the old one. Statement log and Plan history play key roles in the process. If the new plan is as good as or better than the old one, it is added to the plan baseline. Plans that do not perform as well are stored in plan history and marked as unaccepted. During validation, multiple baselines can be tested and the one with the lowest cost will be chosen. This process is particularly useful for volatile tables and cursor sharing scenarios. By default, the retention period for baselines is 53 weeks.