Quality Assurance in Design-Build Projects (2008)

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78 GLOSSARY Acceptance—process of deciding, through inspection, whether to accept or reject a product, including what pay factor to apply. Acceptance plan—agreed-upon method of taking samples and making measurements or observations on these sam- ples for the purpose of evaluating the acceptability of a lot of material or construction. In this report, it is to be con- sidered to represent only those functions associated with acceptance. Betterments—design-builder-proposed aspects of design and/or construction that exceed the minimum level of qual- ity specified in the design-build (DB) request for proposal (RFP). Concessionaire—see definition for developer. Design-bid-build—project delivery system in which the design and construction are awarded in two separate con- tracts to a designer and a contractor. Design-build—project delivery method in which both the design and construction are awarded to one entity (the design-builder) in the same contract. Design-builder—entity that holds the DB contract with the owner. This entity can be organized in a number of man- ners ranging from a single firm that offers both design and construction services to a joint venture made up of design and construction firms. Most commonly this will be a gen- eral construction contractor who has a design services sub- contract with an engineering firm. Design-build solicitation documents—documents that are is- sued by the DB project owner to request qualifications and/or proposals from design-builders. This includes re- quest for qualifications (RFQs), RFPs, and invitations to/for bid (ITBs or IFBs). These documents elicit a re- sponse from proposers and are part of the final DB contract. Developer—entity with which the contracting agency has executed a public-private agreement for the development, design, construction, financing, operation, and mainte- nance of one or more projects under a public-private part- nership. Depending on the context of the public-private agreement, the term ‘’developer’’ may include affiliated entities of the developer. Final design—any design activities following preliminary design. Final design activities are not necessary to com- plete the National Environmental Protection Act process as outlined in federal regulations. Hold point—mandatory owner inspection of a specified fea- ture of work that is held at a specific point in construction progress. Independent assurance—management tool that requires a third party, not directly responsible for process control or acceptance, to provide an independent assessment of the product and/or the reliability of test results obtained from process control and acceptance testing. (The results of in- dependent assurance tests are not to be used as a basis of product acceptance.) Inspection—act of examining, measuring, or testing to deter- mine the degree of compliance with requirements. One-step design-build procurement process—process for se- lecting a design-builder based on its response to an RFP. Design-builders submit a proposal including qualifications, technical approach, and price in response to the RFP. Over-the-shoulder design review—informal review of the design by the owner. Over-the-shoulder reviews are not hold points that restrict the progress of design. They are simply reviews of the design as it progresses and opportu- nities for the owner to provide comments and feedback on the design. Owner independent assessment—oversight performed by the department (or agent) to satisfy Virginia DOT and FHWA’s requirements for documenting that proper quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) are being performed. This oversight provides an independent assessment of design- builder’s implementation of and compliance with the ap- proved QC and QA plan. Owner independent validation—oversight performed by the department (or agent). The focus of owner independent validation is to verify design-builder’s QC and QA com- pliance and confirm that the quality characteristics of the products incorporated in the project are valid for accep- tance and payment. Owner verification testing—testing done by the owner in a public-private partnership project to verify that the design- builder’s test results are valid. Preliminary design—all design activities necessary to com- plete the National Environmental Protection Act alterna- tives analysis and review process as outlined in federal regulations. Project quality assurance—all those actions necessary for the owner to ensure that design-builder-performed QA activi- ties give a true representation of the quality of the com- pleted project. This may include owner verification and acceptance testing or independent assurance testing as well as owner oversight actions when the design-builder is responsible for QA. Procurement—the stage in the life of a project that comprises all aspects of project development and management lead- ing up to, but not including, project design. This includes DOT preparation of the RFQ and RFP as well as design- builder’s proposals in response to the RFQ/RFP. Proposers—those companies who, in response to an RFQ or RFP, submit a proposal to the agency that issued the RFQ/RFP. Proposers are also referred to as design-builders. Public-private partnership—agreement between a public agency and a private party under which the private party shares in the responsibilities, risks, and benefits of constructing a project. GLOSSARY OF TERMS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND ACRONYMS

79 Such agreement may involve an at-risk equity investment by the private party in the project. Quality—(1) degree of excellence of a product or service; (2) degree to which a product or service satisfies the needs of a specific customer; or (3) degree to which a product or service conforms to a given requirement. Quality assurance—all those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide confidence that a product or facility will perform satisfactorily in service. QA addresses the overall problem of obtaining the quality of a service, prod- uct, or facility in the most efficient, economical, and satis- factory manner possible. Within this broad context, QA involves continued evaluation of the activities of planning, design, development of plans and specifications, advertis- ing and awarding of contracts, construction, and mainte- nance, and the interactions of these activities. Quality control—also called process control. Those QA actions and considerations necessary to assess and adjust production and construction processes so as to control the level of qual- ity being produced in the end product. Quality management—totality of the system used to manage the ultimate quality of the design as well as the construc- tion encompassing the quality functions described previ- ously as QA, QC, independent assurance, and verification. Request for proposal—document issued by an agency request- ing for proposals to be given to perform a specific activity or project. Request for qualifications— document issued before issuing an RFP requesting potential designers, contractors, design- builders, and so forth to submit qualifications to show that they are qualified to submit a detailed technical proposal in response to an RFP. An RFQ is the first step in the two- step project award method. Two-step design-build procurement process—process for se- lecting a design-builder based first on its response to an RFQ and afterwards its response to an RFP. Respondents to the RFQ are narrowed down to a short list of three to five design-builders who are then issued the RFP. Only those design-builders on the short list are allowed to sub- mit a proposal in response to the RFP. Validation—process of confirming the soundness or effec- tiveness of a product (such as a model, a program, or specifications) thereby indicating official sanction. (The validation of a product often includes the verification of test results.) Verification—process of determining or testing the truth or accuracy of test results by examining the data and/or pro- viding objective evidence. [Verification sampling and test- ing may be part of an independent assurance program (to verify contractor QC testing or agency acceptance) or part of an acceptance program (to verify contractor testing used in the agency’s acceptance decision).] Witness point—oversight activity carried out by the owner who specifies those features of work that it wants to ob- serve during construction. These are not meant to impede construction progress. ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ADOT Arizona Department of Transportation CDOT Colorado Department of Transportation CEI Construction engineering & inspection CPOC Construction proof of compliance CQA Construction quality assurance CQMP Construction quality management plan DB Design-build DBB Design-bid-build DBIA Design-Build Institute of America DBM Design-build-maintain DBOM Design-build-operate-maintain DBr Design-builder DOT Department of Transportation DQA Design quality assurance DQC Design quality control DQMP Design quality management plan EFLHD Eastern Federal Lands Highway Division FDBOM Finance-design-build-operate-maintain IA Independent assurance MnDOT Minnesota Department of Transportation NCDOT North Carolina Department of Transportation NCR Nonconformance report NMSHTD New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department NSPE National Society of Professional Engineers PPP Public-private partnership PQA Project quality assurance QA Quality assurance QC Quality control QCP Quality control plan QM Quality management QMS Quality management system RFP Request for proposal RFQ Request for qualification SEC Southeast corridor SEP-14 Special Experimental Project No. 14 TTA Texas Turnpike Authority UDOT Utah Department of Transportation VDOT Virginia Department of Transportation WSDOT Washington State Department of Transportation