Template Application

The StAT template requires customization for different contexts. Inversely, the different implementations have shown that the fundamental principles of the template are a solid foundation. StAT is nothing more than a BPM (Business Process) implementation focused on scientific work. Scientific workflows have a different focus than many business workflows, but they are still just workflows.

Corporate Context

The full use of the StAT template is only evident in a corporate context where there are complex business workflows across multiple departments, and individual attributes of the template link to other workflow systems and reference data:

• Inventory
• Personnel
• Scheduling and Calendars
• Maintenance
• Ontologies

Research

Research is based around experiments. Experiments are prescriptive descriptions of work to be done, and the data collected from carrying out the prescription. An experiment is often composed of multiple sub-workflow trials, with the goal being the comparison of the trial results (observations) against each other. Standardized data also allows for synthetic experiments, comparisons of results from experiments that were initially created for other reasons than the current questions under consideration.

In plant science, the Environmental Observations of a controlled environment (greenhouse or growth chamber) are necessary data but of little research value, they only confirm that the controls (prescriptive data) was correctly followed. It is the comparison of Agronomic Observations (plant measurements) for different environmental controls that are important.