There is considerable disagreement and in some cases confusion about terms used in connection with quality assurance and control in construction. The following definitions were adopted by the committee, primarily from federal agency and Construction Industry Institute sources.

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA.

Specified limits placed on characteristics of a product, process, or service defined by codes, standards, or other requirement documents.

APPRAISAL.

Activities employed to determine whether a product, process or service conforms to established requirements, including: design review, specification review, other documentation review, constructibility review, materials inspection/tests, personnel testing, quality status documentation, and post project reviews.

AUDIT.

A formal, independent examination with intent to verify conformance with established requirements. An audit

does not include surveillance or inspection for the purpose of process control or product acceptance.

CHANGE.

A directed action altering the currently established requirements. Changes may address design, fabrication, construction. and materially affect the approved requirements, the basis of design, the existing scope of the contract plans and specifications, or operating capability of the facility.

CORRECTIVE ACTION.

Measures taken to rectify conditions adverse to quality, and where necessary, to preclude repetition. Corrective action includes rework for non-conformance and deviations.

COST OF QUALITY.

The cost associated with quality management activities (prevention and appraisal) plus the cost associated with deviations.

CRITICALITY.

A measure of the significance or impact of failure of a product, process or service to meet established requirements.

DEFECT.

A deviation with a severity sufficient to require corrective action.

DEVIATION.

A departure from established requirements. A deviation may be classified as an improvement, an imperfection, non-conformance, or defect, based on its severity.

DEVIATION COSTS.

The sum of those costs, including consequential costs such as schedule impact, associated with the rejection or rework of a product, process or service due to a deviation.

ERROR.

Any item or activity in a system that is performed incorrectly, resulting in a deviation, e.g., design error, fabrication error, construction error, etc. An error requires an evaluation to determine what corrective action is necessary.

IMPERFECTION.

A deviation which does not affect the use or performance of the product, process or service. In practice, imperfections are deviations that are accepted as is.

INSPECTION.

An activity involving the appraisal of a process, product or service to ascertain if it conforms to the established requirements. An activity which the contractor has an obligation and the government has a right to perform.

ITEM.

An all-inclusive term used in requirements documents in place of any of the following: appurtenance, assembly, component, equipment, material, module, part, structure, subassembly, subsystem, system, or unit.

NON-CONFORMANCE.

A deviation that occurs with a severity sufficient to consider rejection of the product, process or service. In some situations the product, process or service may be accepted as is; in other situations it will require corrective action.

OMISSION.

Any part of a system, including design, construction and fabrication, that has been left out resulting in a deviation. An omission requires an evaluation to determine what corrective action is necessary.

PREVENTION.

Activities employed to avoid deviations, including such activities as: quality systems development, quality program development, feasibility studies, contractor/subcontractor evaluation, quality orientation activities and certification/qualification.

PROJECT.

All those elements and activities associated with a facility from initial concept to final disposition.

PROJECT ELEMENTS.

The major phases of a project, including preplanning, design, procurement, construction, start-up, operation and final disposition.

QUALITY.

In construction, conformance to established and adequately developed requirements.

QUALITY ACTIVITIES.

Those activities in a project directly associated with problem prevention and appraisal.

QUALITY ASSURANCE.

All those planned or systematic actions undertaken to provide adequate confidence that a product, process or service will conform to established requirements.

QUALITY ASSURANCE INSPECTOR.

The person who performs inspection for quality assurance.

QUALITY CONTROL.

Inspection, test, evaluation or other actions to verify that a product, process or service conforms to established requirements.

QUALITY CONTROL INSPECTOR.

The person who performs inspection for quality control and, after appraisal, recommends corrective action.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT.

The process of optimization of the use of resources for quality activities; includes prevention and appraisal activities.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT COSTS.

The sum of those costs associated with prevention.

QUALITY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.

A management tool providing data for the quantitative analysis of certain quality-related aspects of projects by systematically collecting and classifying quality management costs.

REQUIREMENT.

A contractually established characteristic of a product, process or service. A characteristic is a physical or chemical property, a dimension, a temperature, a pressure, or any other specification used to define the nature of a product, process or service.

SURVEILLANCE.

The act of monitoring or observing to verify whether an item or activity conforms to established requirements.

VERIFICATION.

The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise determining and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to established requirements.