Who Provides Quality Assurance
| Party | Typical quality assurance role | Usual limits |
|---|---|---|
| Owner or owner's representative | Observes progress and quality on the owner's behalf | Defined by the owner's own procedures and contracts |
| Construction manager | Monitors contractors' work and quality programs | Defined by the construction management agreement |
| Architect or engineer | Site observations to determine general conformance with design intent | Usually not continuous or exhaustive inspection |
| Building official | Inspects specific code items at required stages | Code compliance only, at defined points |
| Third-party inspector | Inspects specified items under its scope | Limited to its contracted scope |
The actual roles depend on the contracts, which Paul reads before evaluating any party's conduct.
Quality Assurance Does Not Replace Quality Control
A common argument in quality disputes is that the owner, architect or inspector should have caught a problem. Sometimes their role did include that check. Often it did not, because their contracts limit them to periodic observation or to specific items. Under most construction contracts, the contractor remains responsible for the conformance of its work whether or not anyone else noticed a problem. Paul explains what each party was responsible for, so that arguments about who should have caught a deficiency rest on the documents rather than assumptions.
Quality Assurance Programs
Larger owners, public agencies and institutions often run formal quality assurance programs, with inspection schedules, reporting forms, audits of contractor quality control and acceptance procedures. Paul's experience with City of Chicago facilities and the Department of Aviation gives him practical familiarity with how such programs work. He reviews the program documents and records to determine what the program required and whether it was carried out.
Quality Assurance Records
Quality assurance generates its own records: observation reports, field reports from design professionals, inspection reports, audit findings, nonconformance notices and acceptance documents. These records show what the overseeing party saw and when. They can corroborate or contradict the contractor's quality control records, and they can show whether known issues were communicated to the contractor and followed up.
Allocation Questions
Where several parties had some quality role, the question of who bears responsibility for a missed deficiency is ultimately for counsel and the court. Paul's contribution is a clear description of each party's documented role, what it did, and what it knew. See construction quality control and construction inspection failures.