Environment, Coasts, Oceans, & Infrastructure

Environment, Coasts, Oceans, & Infrastructure

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  • 1.  How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 02-24-2017 02:02 PM

    A quality check by another person seems a must for any engineering work. What do you do if you are an independent subcontractor? Your subcontract likely specifies that you can’t further subcontract any job tasks, yet, it also likely to specify that you are legally responsible for your portion of the work.

    If you are an independent subcontractor, do you QC your own work?

    If your company subcontracts a task to someone, do you expect it to be “ready to go” or do you run your own QC on it?



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    Natalya Sokolovskaya P.E., M.ASCE
    Wynnewood PA
    (323)382-6176
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  • 2.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 02-27-2017 09:32 AM
    One of the things that I have done, is that I perform quality reviews on all the work done by my subcontractors.  I also have a mentor that I use during preliminary phase discusses, and bounce ideas off of him for my work.    The review process needs to be defined up front, so you can budget time for it within your estimates.  I use my mentor to help factor in this time.

    When we get to the final products, I have a very formal review process that I use to check each box on the review process one line at a time.  I do use my subcontractors to check my work when it is appropriate.  An appropriate reviewer is someone that is knowledgeable about the methodology, is willing to tell me that I am wrong, and has not been intimately involved in the process.  Often I use my mentor for this process, but I also use my contract EIT and contract CADD guru. 

    It is easy to neglect quality when you are on your own.  My opinion is that when you are on your own, quality work is what will get you more work from the same client.  And getting more work from the same client is the easiest form of marketing and your best form of advertising.  Developing the processes that we use when we are on our own should be scaled from the processes that we learned when we were on larger teams.  I think it all starts by setting out those processes in advance, and then not neglecting them when we get to the hurry up and finish stage at the end.  By the time we start having employees, these processes should be pretty engrained, and hopefully made formal enough to share.

    Since every project is different, every project's quality plan needs to be different.  That does not mean that some items like directory structure, CADD Standards, document standards, cannot be standardized, but it does mean the plan for a 5 page report would be different than for a 100 page plan set.

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    Dwayne Culp P.E., P.Eng, M.ASCE
    Culp Engineering, LLC
    Richmond TX
    (713)898-1977
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  • 3.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 02-27-2017 01:33 PM

    Back in 1999, I spent a year or so working as an independent contractor, doing small grading, storm drain and storm water management projects. I had a friend who was in a similar position. We used to review each other's work on a friendly basis, and simply considered it professional courtesy.




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    David Booth P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    CLSI
    Westminster MD
    (410)871-4472
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  • 4.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 02-28-2017 09:59 AM
    Thank you, Dwayne and David!
    Did you discuss these arrangements (QC by a mentor or friend) with the clients? Informally or incorporated in the subcontract?

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    Natalya Sokolovskaya P.E., M.ASCE
    Wynnewood PA
    (323)382-6176
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  • 5.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 03-01-2017 11:01 AM
    We always talk about quality processes with the clients.  Often it is a defining factor in choosing our company over the other guy.  We have found that the time it takes in quality processes is almost always recovered in decreasing the amount of rework.  This means that quality cannot be a one time at the end of the project process.  We try to make it a natural part of our work flow.

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    Dwayne Culp P.E., P.Eng, M.ASCE
    Culp Engineering, LLC
    Richmond TX
    (713)898-1977
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  • 6.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 03-02-2017 11:42 AM
    I never bothered to discuss it with the client.

    His attitude was "do whatever it takes to get my project approved, and any engineering liability is under your seal and signature".

    Because we were reviewing each other's work on a courtesy basis, I never presented any billing for QC, as such.

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    David Booth P.E., M.ASCE
    Civil Engineer
    CLSI
    Westminster MD
    (410)871-4472
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  • 7.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 03-04-2017 10:01 PM
    Hi Natalya,
    Great question! Let me echo what others have mentioned. First, great question because of your acknowledgement/recognition on the importance of QAQC in the process. In addition to my everyday task as engineer and project manager, I currently assist in my company's QAQC program. The important fist step is to develop a program focusing on the quality control and quality assurance that sets your goals for your work but is flexible enough for the deliverable. As Dwayne mentioned, the program has to allow for flexibility for a single report review that may require less QAQC time than a 100 sheet plan set. Based on my practice and training that I've attended. QAQC is acknowledged as a part of the project delivery process whether is set as a separate line item or it shows up in your work based structure as a "senior engineer" time. A personal friend of mine started his own engineering firm based on the understanding that a peer review and senior engineering would be needed. So he had a senior engineer on call to provide that experience and hence that fellow QAQC. I agree with others on the approach for having that mentor to carry out courtesy reviews. As an option, you could explore this option at least until your projects and fees can prove out on charging for that additional support. 

    As commentary to your second question, when my company hires subconsultants, we do expect it to be completed. Nonetheless, as others have mentioned even though I expect a finish product, I still carry out general QAQC of their work for alignment with the work we are contracted to carry out. My QAQC for their work would not be necessarily be for technical content as they are the experts but I do need to ask the question if their recommendations appear different and/or additional coordination is needed to bring into alignment with the goals of the project.  Let me know if there are any other questions I can help with or if I can expand on this initial response. 

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    Jimmy Galvez P.E., M.ASCE
    Project Manager
    Houston TX
    (510)325-8148
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  • 8.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 06-19-2018 06:20 PM
    Edited by Tirza Austin 06-19-2018 06:19 PM
    Hi  Natalya,
    Thanks for raising the question.

    Please bear with me on my response.

    Quality is conformance to requirements.

    Requirements inform us what to do and how to do it.

    But frequently clients only have expectations.

    So, the first step in QC/QA is confirming exactly what the client's expectations are,
    as translated into what will be done and how it will be done. Until this step is completed, no work ought to be done.

    Once that first step is done, then based on the complexity of the work, phase-gate reviews will be done as a function of the
    complexity of the work, i.e. do NOT fall into the trap of the "30/60/90" reviews.

    For the phase-gate reviews, use a known technical person who will follow a process you trust.

    Your fee will have included a budget for such work.

    Do NOT fall into the trap of "Saving money" by "Doing it yourself."

    cheers,
    Bill





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    William M. Hayden Jr., Ph.D., P.E., CMQ/OE, F.ASCE
    Buffalo, N.Y.

    "It is never too late to be what you might have been." -- George Eliot 1819 - 1880
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  • 9.  RE: How to QC if it's just me?

    Posted 06-20-2018 10:47 AM
    Edited by Tirza Austin 06-20-2018 10:46 AM
    Natalya,

    I work for a large engineering firm and when we subcontract out to smaller firms where QA/QC is an issue we make it our responsibility to provide the QA/QC review. If the work is specialized and we do not have someone then it would still fall on us as the prime to ensure that the work is reviewed. This is something that should be discussed and agreed upon before you are hired as the subcontractor and the prime should be thinking about this as well, especially if you are the sole employee on the subcontract.

    SIncerely,


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    Daniel Rosenberg P.E., M.ASCE
    AECOM
    Cleveland OH
    (216)416-2000
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