A method for executing an agricultural harvesting process on a field by an integrated system of agricultural harvesting machines, wherein the harvesting machines in the integrated system each comprise crop-processing working units which can be adjusted using machine parameters for adaptation to the particular harvesting conditions, wherein the harvesting machines in the integrated system communicate with each other via a wireless data network. One harvesting machine in the integrated system is designed as a self-optimizing harvesting machine which comprises a driver assistance system for automatically generating machine parameters which have been optimized with respect to the crop processing, and the optimized machine parameters are provided by the self-optimizing harvesting machine via the data network to the other harvesting machines in the integrated system that do not comprise a driver assistance system.