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Technical teams

The GGCE technical teams at the Crop Trust and CGIAR operate under independent workplans agreed with their respective management, and take into consideration the advice provided by the Advisory Group in the development of the activities, approaches, and targets. They aim to coordinate investments and avoid duplication of efforts.

Team at the Crop Trust​

The point of contact for the Crop Trust team is currently Matija Obreza, Head of GGP Information Systems.

The Crop Trust manages the development of GGCE in line with the software development principles outlined below. Change requests are thoughtfully considered, evaluated, negotiated, designed, and implemented in a manner that ensures their applicability to ensure adherence to good inventory-management practices and relevance across genebanks. The objective is to foster a cohesive and consistent development of a unified curated line of GGCE that is applicable to any genebank, thereby preventing fragmentation within the GGCE software ecosystem.

Depending on available funds and organizational priorities, the Crop Trust Team designs, develops, tests, documents, provides user support, and maintains GGCE, building upon user requirements and feedback on usability provided by genebanks.

The Crop Trust technical team shall:

GGCE development:​

  • Design, develop and test GGCE Server and GGCE Web components in a timely manner to the extent possible given available resources (a) considering the system and user (genebank) requirements, (b) ensuring coordination with ongoing Genesys development efforts at the Crop Trust, and (c) ensuring compatibility of proposed improvements with existing functionalities of GGCE and associated developments (e.g. GGCE-linked apps, Genesys, GLIS, etc.)

Documentation:​

  • Create, maintain, and ensure the availability of technical software documentation and a comprehensive GGCE user manual in English, and if funds are available, also in the Spanish and French languages.

Supporting GGCE deployment:​

  • Promote adoption of GGCE in non-CGIAR genebanks.
  • Provide support to non-CGIAR genebanks adopting and using GGCE.
  • Provide support to the CGIAR Team in the use and operation of GGCE Server and GGCE Web system components.

Team at CGIAR​

The point of contact for the CGIAR Team is currently Ana Oliveira, Coordinator of Genebank Information Management.

Along with the Crop Trust technical team, the CGIAR technical team intends to plan, analyze, develop, test, deploy and implement GGCE in CGIAR genebanks, while consolidating and prioritizing user requirements and providing day-to-day user support. In addition, the CGIAR technical team is developing customized GGCE-linked applications for data capture and barcode reading, without which GGCE is unlikely to be adopted by CGIAR genebanks.

The CGIAR technical team shall:

GGCE deployment in CGIAR genebanks:​

  • Promote adoption of GGCE in genebanks through online and in person training.
  • Document the current state of IT infrastructure and data-management processes in CGIAR genebanks.
  • Support the development of Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes for data migration as needed.
  • Accompany genebanks during the GGCE implementation process and prepare reports about GGCE deployment in CGIAR genebanks for the Advisory Group.

User-requirement analysis and harmonization:​

  • Work with process specialists in CGIAR genebanks to analyze workflows, including data-capture and quality-control points.
  • Suggest adjustments to processes and standardization of data to promote harmonization of processes across genebanks.
  • Document consolidated, harmonized, and prioritized user requirements on behalf of CGIAR genebanks in the GGCE issue tracking system.

System requirement definition:​

  • Analyze and document system requirements for GGCE and GGCE-linked apps, considering performance, scalability, and integration with other software systems.
  • Actively engage with the Crop Trust technical team in the design, development and testing of GGCE features for usability and scaling.

Development of GGCE-linked applications:​

  • Develop, test, roll out, support, and maintain additional GGCE-compatible mobile apps and ensure their compatibility with new releases of GGCE.