3 Steps to standardize processes in agriculture research

Standardize processes to empower accurate and reliable data! Standards in agriculture research allow to compare data across experiments, leveraging the efforts of gathering data from testing fields.

In agriculture research, standard processes ensure centralizing information and adopting a coherent system to facilitate decision-making and improve efficiency.

Standardize agriculture research processes make collaboration easier by sharing common rules and tools across activities.

A must have for product developers, plant breeders and agronomists to stay ahead of the innovation race!

By following standardized procedures, researchers can eliminate potential biases and errors, resulting in more trustworthy and credible findings. With standardization, researchers are better equipped to produce consistent results, and replicate findings.

Keep research flexible and creative with standard processes

“Creativity is intelligence having fun” Albert Einstein

Don’t worry, standard processes won’t kill your creativity. They will actually help you focus on the fun and exciting part of your research. As long as the system stays flexible and adaptable, researchers keep their autonomy while enhancing their productivity and performance.

By using a dynamic and user-friendly software, researchers can quickly adopt new technologies and methods. And if the system is configurable, it gets tailored to your specific needs and preferences. Besides, it will evolve along with the changing demands and challenges of the research field, thanks to frequent updates and improvements.

Working together with standard processes is not only good for creativity, but also for collaboration. By sharing common rules and tools, you can easily communicate and cooperate with your fellow researchers, across different projects and locations. You can also learn from each other, exchange knowledge and know-how, and build on each other’s expertise and insights. This way, you can strengthen your R&D department, and achieve better results and impacts.

Research software flexibility is the key to match the needs of users. 💡 On this topic, check our UI/UX designer's article: Design Game-Changing User Interface for Agronomy Software

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Why standardize processes in agriculture research?

Standardize agriculture research starts with processes. Let’s face it, it can be a bit of a headache – Plant breeding, agronomy testing and product development processes are complex and prone to inefficiencies. That's where digitalization comes in. It's the game-changer that can help standardize and streamline your R&D activities, paving the way for greater innovation and competitiveness.

Data standards is another facet of standardizing agriculture research. They ensure every data point is collected, analyzed, and presented in a consistent and unbiased manner. Standards ensure accurate and reliable data from the collection to interpretation are uniform across different studies and researchers. By adhering to a common framework, researchers can analyze data from multiple sources and draw meaningful insights.

🍅🥬🍆Gautier Semences has started to centralize and standardize their vegetable breeding data and processes with Doriane® in 2009, mainly for two reasons:

o  Enhance their tracking of vegetable germplasm and seeds, notably to compel with vegetable seed production quality regulations

o  Perpetuate and valorize researchers’ intellectual assets by digitalizing and centralizing their methods and agronomist tools

👉 Read their success story "Vegetable breeding at Gautier Semences"

How to standardize agriculture research?

Transformation of an R&D department requires much preparation, impacts all teams and deserves much consideration all along these 3 steps to standardize processes in agriculture research:

1. Upstream preparation underscores the importance of defining problems, formalizing needs, and choosing the best solution to meet current and future requirements. Adopting new standards involve changes in the research software and choosing the level of customization of the new software (picture above). Standardize processes in agriculture research involves to codify processes, establish clear architectures, and focus on scalability to address future insights. Standardizing R&D activities ensure organizations they are aligned with best practices and industry standards.
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2. Execution phase focuses on the adoption of an adapted methodology, team cooperation, and measuring risks to ensure long-term maintainability. During this essential phase to standardize agriculture research, it matters to pay attention to:
   - Mutual understanding and acceptance of business needs
   - Teams availability because notably of work seasonality in field
   At Doriane we propose an agile methodology with periodic reviews of the scope delivered and business team acceptance. This enables to stay focus on the most valuable features and adjust deliverables along the project.
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3. Managing the transition is the final step to standardize agriculture research. It involves to communicate, train, and ensure a smooth transfer of skills to optimize methods and ensure the independence of R&D teams. This phase ensures that changes are implemented across the organization. With change management, organizations minimize disruptions and ensure that R&D activities continue to align with standardized practices.
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Gains from standardizing processes in agriculture research

Overall, standardize processes in agriculture research unlocks the key to reliable data, allowing for more meaningful and impactful research outcomes. So, whether you are a researcher, a policymaker, or a decision-maker, embracing research standardization methodologies can greatly enhance the quality and credibility of your agronomy data.

In today's fast-paced and competitive environment, research standardization through central system digitalization is not just a choice but a necessity for organizations looking to stay ahead in the innovation race.

Go digital is a strategic imperative for companies seeking to drive innovation and maintain a competitive edge in their respective industries. By embracing these insights and leveraging digitalization as a tool for research standardization, plant research organizations pave the way for a more efficient, consistent, and innovative approach to R&D.

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