How to Test Your Own REDCap Project

We know you've heard (at least...we hope you've heard!) the REDCap team tell you to test your project thoroughly before moving to Production mode.

But we've found recently that some folks, especially those new to REDCap, might not know exactly what that means.

We've got a new document that goes through project testing in some detail - highly recommend checking it out.

Here's the tl;dr

• Create lots of test data! This is what Development mode is for. You want to go through the entire data entry process, end-to-end, in the way you plan to execute the data entry process for real.
  • This means for a data entry project, you'll go to Add/Edit Records and add your data.
  • For a survey project, you'll send yourself or other colleagues surveys and complete them as a survey respondent would.
• When you move to Production mode, you can delete all the test data you’ve created.
• Testing helps you quickly identify issues in your project - things you wouldn't be able to identify by just looking at the Online Designer.
• Don't wait until you've built all your instruments to test. Any time you build a new instrument, or a complex field, or add some branching logic - make sure it works before moving on! It will save you time in the end.

Now let's see those test records!