Quality Assurance and Quality Control

A review with no time left

The answer is in section 4. In short, the problem started weeks earlier, when nobody put the review on the phase plan.

Module 10 taught you to compare every request against the agreement. This module applies the same check to the drawings. Before the Architect of Record signs and seals the Oakhaven construction documents, you must be able to answer one question. What proves this set is ready?

Grace has a written process to answer it. Quality Assurance and Quality Control is a collaborative process. Specific people do specific tasks at set times, with set tools, and then the result is verified. Section 3 explains the process. Section 4 explains your role in it.

QA/QC uses the plan you already have. In Module 5 you built the phase plan. In Module 8 you compare the week against it every Friday. QA/QC adds the review dates to that plan, and then checks that each review happened.

By the end of Module 11, you’ll be able to:

• ✓Put every QA Review and Quality Review on the phase plan with a date and a named reviewer, and book the Construction Documents QC Reviewer at least 3 weeks before the signing and sealing deadline.
• ✓Confirm from the record, before the QC Form goes out, that every discipline checked its own work against the QA Prompts.
• ✓Read the Quality Control Form and say what every blank row means.
• ✓Put an item that cannot close inside the phase into the Design Team Report, where the QC Reviewer and the Architect of Record see it before the set goes out.

Late problems cost more to fix

A problem found during a design review is a simple correction. The same problem found after the set is issued costs more to fix. A problem found during construction becomes rework or a change order.

This is what it means to Protect Integrity on a project. The QA/QC process finds problems early, when they cost less and the team has more options. Grace’s lifecycle map states the rule.

That rule sets 2 conditions before the project moves to the next phase. The work meets the standard. And the right people know about and accept any item that is still open.

Where the process fails

Grace has a written process and the tools to run it. The process still fails in 3 common ways.

1. A review gets scheduled late, and the reviewer gets the set the day before the deadline.
2. A red line never gets back checked, and the row on the form stays empty.
3. A phase starts before the last one was reviewed, because the calendar moved.

You can find all 3 on the schedule or on the QC Form. You do not need to open a drawing.

Each role in section 3 is responsible for part of the work. The Project Manager is accountable for the whole process.

Grace’s QA/QC process

Grace’s QA/QC process has 4 parts. Specific roles do specific tasks at set times, with set tools. Then the result is verified.

Who does the work

Grace names 5 roles.

You are accountable for the process that connects these 5 roles. Each role depends on the dates you set.

What happens, and when

Grace assigns the work by phase. Figure 2 shows the full sequence.

Two steps on the timeline matter most. In Pre Design, you and your Storyteller identify the project schedule with QA/QC dates for each phase. Through Schematic Design, Design Development and Construction Documents, you choose the QC Reviewer and set the review dates. Your Storyteller books the reviewer at least 3 weeks before the signing and sealing deadline, and puts those dates on your calendar and the reviewer’s.

Every other step depends on these 2.

The tools

Grace built every tool this process runs on.

The Grace QA/QC Process page lists where each tool lives and who requests it.

What the form proves

The Quality Control Form carries the phase due dates, the reviewer names, and a row for each review at each phase. Here are the 4 review rows, in the form’s own labels.

Below the grid sits the Design Team Report. Its Areas Under Development field lists the areas the design team wants the reviewer to look at for this milestone. Grace asks for the form at every phase, and on addenda, ASIs and early release packages.

The top of the form gives one instruction. Provide adequate time for review and red line pickup before the issue dates. Plan the time for red line pickup when you plan the review.

How the result gets verified

The result is verified in 3 places.

1. The back check row. The team picks up the red lines and back checks them. A row on the form records this.
2. The Architect of Record. The AOR reviews the QC Form and checks the drawings before signing and sealing. When the AOR signs and seals, the AOR confirms the set is ready.
3. The metrics. Your Storyteller captures the QA/QC metrics, Centerline aggregates them, and the firm reports them quarterly to find leading and lagging indicators.

Your role: 4 steps every phase

You’re accountable for the process, and for confirming it’s complete before work goes out. You do this in 4 steps in every phase: schedule, prepare, drive and verify. Each step starts at a specific point in the phase.

Schedule

Schedule starts when you build the phase plan, the same process you followed in Module 5. Grace asks you for one thing in Pre Design. Identify the project schedule with QA/QC dates for each phase.

So every QA Review and Quality Review goes on the schedule with a real date and a named reviewer. Do not write TBD.

You choose the QC Reviewer for each phase and set the review dates. Your Storyteller books the reviewer on those dates, at least 3 weeks before the signing and sealing deadline, and puts them on your calendar and the reviewer’s. At the end of Construction Documents the reviewer comes from outside the project team and outside the office, so choose that reviewer early. If the project needs more than 3 weeks, decide that at the start of the phase.

The form tells you what else to plan. It asks for adequate time for review and red line pickup before the issue dates. So the review, the pickup window and the back check go on the plan together.

These decisions are yours alone. You choose the QC Reviewer. You decide whether extra reviews are required, consultant reviews included. And you edit the QA Prompts with the design team, which sets the scope of the review and tells you how much time it needs.

This answers the question in section 1. A reviewer with one day cannot do a full review. The problem started at the beginning of the phase, when nobody put the review on the schedule. The Project Manager owns that problem. One date on the phase plan prevents it.

Prepare

Prepare starts when a review date is on the calendar and the package hasn’t gone out. Before the QA Review, ask one question. Did every discipline check its own work against the prompts, or did some of them just say they did?

Confirm means you looked at the record yourself. Grace names the records to check. The design team reviews the BIM QA sheet prompts before the set gets printed for the end of phase review. Your Storyteller PDFs each sheet with the BIM QC Checklists and saves them to the project folder.

Then the QC Form goes to the QC Reviewer and the Architect of Record, with the checklists. Grace makes the Project Manager responsible for a complete form, so read it before it goes. Check 3 things.

A set sent to a reviewer the day before the deadline does not get a full review. Send it with the time the plan allows.

Drive

Drive starts when the review comments come back. The team picks up the red lines and back checks them. The QA Reviews / Red-lines Back Checked row on the form records this.

If that row is blank, nobody has confirmed that the corrections are in the drawings.

Some items cannot close before the phase ends. Record them in the Design Team Report on the QC Form, under Areas Under Development. Write an open item there, and the QC Reviewer and the Architect of Record both see it before the set goes out.

You don’t judge how serious a finding is. The QC Reviewer or the discipline lead does that. Your job is to make sure their decision, and the status of every correction, is recorded.

Verify, on Oakhaven

That’s a technical call, and Dana isn’t the one who makes it. What she can do is check the record, in 3 places.

1. Did the design team complete its quality control review for this phase, before the next one starts?
2. Are both open items written into the areas under development, where the QC Reviewer and the Architect of Record will see them?
3. Does the back check row show what’s actually picked up?

The HVAC clash has a reason, a lead and a decision date. It goes on the form as an area under development, and the reviewer gets it with the set.

The generator pad has no answer yet, because structural and geotechnical haven’t agreed. Dana can’t resolve it, and the mechanical lead can’t either. So it goes to the discipline lead today, and Dana tells Karen before Friday which open items the set includes.

Practice. Read 3 QC Forms and decide what each one tells you.

Sign and seal

The last step is sign and seal. The Architect of Record receives the QC report, reviews the form, checks the drawings, and then signs and seals.

If the set reaches the Architect of Record without a complete form, a step in the process was missed. Find the missed step and complete it. After the phase, the results are counted. Your Storyteller captures the metrics in Centerline and composes the A3, and you review it at closeout.

Put it to work