Chunk #15 — Building and Supporting the REDCap Consortium: A Phased Approach — Phase 3: Creating a Small Consortium of Partners (4–10 sites; ~ 2006–2008) — Challenges:
Additional partners meant more time spent managing groups and less time working on needs specific to Vanderbilt research teams. Developing formal installation documentation placed a high burden on the Vanderbilt REDCap group, as we had to design a generalizable resource while responding to many customized support requests from adopting institutions. Additional partners also brought a diversity of opinions on the software’s trajectory. Adopting and adhering to larger program goals for REDCap required diplomacy in the face of individual project interests but was necessary for long-term success. Organizing remote volunteer work required extensive managerial oversight and led to occasional delays in program deliverables. We had to set expectations early regarding the level of support that Vanderbilt was able to provide: a “zero-fee” REDCap Consortium membership meant we could only provide support to our partners’ informatics teams, not their end users. Partner sites had to accept responsibility for training and supporting their own REDCap end users. Critical software enhancements, including an overhaul of the data architecture, streamlined workflow, and refinement of user experience, led to a more stable and robust platform, but also slowed down our work enabling new features for specific use cases.
