Professional review

Some field work must not start until a qualified adviser has looked at it: a restricted product, a sensitive block next to a waterway, a pest intervention near harvest. The review decision is that person’s record. It names the field operation, the revision reviewed, the decision, the reason, the reviewer and the decision date.

The reviewer must be an active team member in the same organization, and must not be the person who prepared the plan. The decision is one of Approve, Reject or Return. Approve authorizes that revision of the operation. Return sends it back to the planner with a reason, such as a missing evidence line. Reject stops the plan. Because the decision carries the revision number, a plan changed after approval needs a new decision.

• Independent reviewer. The person who drafted the plan cannot approve it. The team directory shows who holds the reviewer role in each organization.
• One decision per revision. The decision records the revision it saw. A later change to date, quantity or product creates a new revision and needs a new decision.
• A reason every time. Approve, Reject and Return all carry a written reason, so the grower and the planner can see why.

Agree who may act as Domain Reviewer in each organization and what qualification they hold. Agree when Return is used and when Reject is used: Return for a fixable gap, Reject for work that should not happen. Agree a turnaround target for operations sitting in Review on a spray day. Decide what the reviewer must read before deciding, such as the latest approved weather observation and the evidence lines.

A planner sends an insecticide pass against codling moth on an orchard block to Review at revision 2. The trap counts in the evidence are from last week. The Domain Reviewer returns the plan with the reason “trap counts older than five days”. The planner adds this week’s counts, which raises the revision to 3, and sends it back to Review.

The reviewer approves revision 3 with the reason “counts above action level; label rate confirmed”. The operation becomes Authorized. Had the planner tried to approve their own plan, the decision would have been refused, because the preparer is never the reviewer.

• Pending Review Revisions — Operations in Review with planned date, quantity, revision and the review note, waiting for a decision.
• Review Decision Log — Every decision with revision, outcome, reason, reviewer and date.
• My Review Decisions — The signed-in reviewer’s own decisions.

• Field plan to authorization: Take one revision through an independent decision.
• Correction and cancellation: Approve a compensating action for work already done.

Check roles and permissions before naming reviewers.