Owner:

What business value does this roadmap item create? / Which problem is this roadmap item trying to solve?

Supporting all review types is a key step towards being able to retire RevMan 5. Out of the types to be supprted, DTA reviews consists of most of the work and value which is why most information here refers to DTA reviews.  

Diagnostic reviews are the second most common review type after intervention reviews. Of 8414 Cochrane Reviews and 2412 Protocols on the Cochrane Library, 141 (~2%) and 103 (~4%) represent diagnostic questions, respectively. Authors completing them currently have to do so in RevMan 5, which poses a risk as investment in and support for RM5 is taken away. Authors of diagnostic reviews have been asking for a number of improvements that will not be actioned in RM5, and implementing them in an improved DTA solution in RMW will enable Cochrane to keep pace with the external methods environment (e.g. data structures that can capture and display multiple thresholds per study).

Implementing support for DTA reviews in RevMan Web has a strategic value as it moves us closer to retiring RevMan 5 which can simplify development of features in RevMan Web because there's no need for compatibility with RevMan 5.   

How can the value delivered be measured?

Number of authors using RMW to prepare reviewsof the newly supported types after 12 months and use of improved data structures and displays.

A date to retire RevMan 5 can be set. 

Which assumptions are made in relation to the value?

The preferences and needs of DTA authors can be represented by the DTA Methods/Editorial Group

EMD have capacity to coordinate the engagement needed for successful delivery.

What are the dependencies for fulfilling the business value?

Detailed input from the DTA Editorial Team about what needs to be replicated from current RM5 functionality and what new functionality is necessary in RMW to facilitate the production of DTA reviews.

What are the risks related to this roadmap item?

The amount of preliminary work and costs of delivering RMW for DTA reviews are disproportionate to the number of reviews affected.

High-level functionality is not needed for the majority of DTA reviews. We could decide to copy the functionality directly as is in RevMan 5 or reduce support for some parts such as QUADAS tool more in line with what is supported for intervention and flexible reviews (data entry only).

What is included in the scope of this solution?

Support for all review types.

Functionality to address longstanding limitations of RM5 (e.g. new types of figure, ability to display common data formats). We could decide to exclude this in a first pass.  

How much time do we estimate to implement this roadmap item?

This is a guesstimate made by the Review Production Team based on known information about the roadmap item and the capacity of the team at the time of estimation (June 2020).

Large: 3 or more sprints = More than 6 weeks.