Getting a Grip on Quality in the Constructed Project: Defining Quality

What Is Quality?

Quality: 1. a: a peculiar and essential character, b: an inherent feature; 2. a: degree of excellence, b: superiority in kind;… 4. a: a distinguishing attribute.

Source: Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary

It is interesting to note that even from the perspective of the dictionary, quality has a variety of definitions, all of which relate to each other but which differ to some greater or lesser degree. This range of views also maps to the real world, where projects struggle to balance expectations and results, and seek to settle on an appropriate balance of often competing interests with respect to whether a delivered product or service is sufficient to satisfy the client's quality standards.

The problem for construction is that in any project, the definition of quality can be a moving target. "Normal and customary" is the term routinely incorporated into contract language, with regard to the expectations of craftsmanship in installation. This means that the standard of outcome will vary in accordance with many factors. As a result, an extraordinary effort must be made to specifically define all aspects of the standards for construction in the contract, before the actual construction process begins. Otherwise, subjective evaluations will prevail after the conclusion of a project.

Since the terms defining quality are abstract and subject to wide variation, depending on the point of view of the receiver, it is difficult to pin down in sufficient detail to make it possible to achieve satisfactory results. After the delivery of service or a product, which is when the quality of an installation is actually gauged and measured by the receiver, this becomes a still larger challenge.

What one party perceives to be "normal and customary" depends on many factors, making it difficult to achieve success, even before a project begins. This task becomes impossible once they decide that it was not achieved. Now, this subjectivity can redact to the benefit of the contractor delivery system, but only if the contractor is incredibly lucky (and who can trust luck as a strategy?) or if they are able to go well beyond the expectations of their client. Since neither of these methods can be anticipated with any high degree of certainty, to deliver the desired result, a more intelligent approach is essential. When standards defining quality are left vague, ill-defined, or unclear, it is impossible to be in compliance, either as-you-go or upon completion.

The challenge is that, since for most people, quality is one of those things which is primarily noted in its absence, there has not been extensive thought applied to this aspect of a project. Once the service is delivered, or the product is delivered, the client decides whether it satisfies or if it functions as intended for its stated purpose. Thus, quality must be in contemporaneous compliance, created as the project is being delivered, since it cannot be back-fitted onto the facility after it is completed.

Pre-Project Quality Definitions

The objective of this article is to provide some direction for more comprehensive quality-related considerations in pre-project definitions of quality standards. To craft a more coherent approach, quality needs to be defined in a more comprehensive manner. The standards for describing in a clearly defined and objectively measured manner must be stipulated in the contract documents, such as drawings, specifications, and other documents. When this is achieved, all parties involved in the process have a common basis on which to evaluate, as they go, whether the contractors are delivering on their commitments to provide quality within the expected parameters. A failure to accomplish this, or to even check what the existing standards are before beginning a project, spring loads the project for failure from the perspective of quality.

The starting point must begin with understanding some basic concepts which relate to the delivery of quality. First, it needs to be understood that quality always has an inherent dynamic, responsive aspect to it. This creates a challenging paradox. While the definition of quality is fixed for each project, for the construction industry as a whole, and in comparing one project to another, quality is a very fluid and changing standard of care. This is due to evolving standard of care which drives a rise in the expectations of clients.

An easily understood illustration of this dynamic is the migration of cash machines. When they first appeared, they were to be found only inside lobbies of bank buildings. Over time, consumers came to realize that the machines could be in other places and began to demand that someone provide them, making it more convenient for them to access and obtain cash in a more convenient manner. Now, cash machines are so ubiquitous that they can be found nearly every location where the use of cash is a routine occurrence. Rising expectations, which flow from market dynamics and innovation in both processes and technologies, continue to expand under the relentless pressure of consumers and businesses for better, faster, cheaper, and more convenient ATMs.

Particularly in construction, quality is not judged in a sense of either one standard of care for a service and another for a product. In construction, quality is measured against standards for both. While the final outcome of construction is some facility (a product) intended to support some client operation, the process of constructing that facility (a service), which takes place over time, also matters. It is often misunderstood that how the process of construction occurs and how it is perceived (e.g., as being responsive, purposeful, and effective—sufficient for service) can influence not just the customer's judgment of service quality but also perceptions of product quality.

Three Dimensions of Quality

Regardless of whether we're discussing a product or service, quality must be seen as having three dimensions in the "space" in which it resides. These three dimensions help to translate the ephemeral nature of quality into something tangible.

Disparate Views of What Constitutes Quality

The primary source of dissatisfaction, with respect to quality, occurs when there is a gap between the understanding of what the client expects to get, and what the contractor delivering the project believes they have to do. If the gap between the two understandings is large enough, the result can be an escalating spiral of acrimony, resulting in claims, disputes, and eventual litigation. Once this path is entered, no one involved will benefit, regardless of the conclusion.

The same scenario can occur even when there is no gap in the understanding, but the gap is between what was to be done and was actually was done. In this case, the outcome, for all parties involved in the process, is not just failure with that particular project, but cascading impacts, which flow far beyond the boundaries of any particular project. This path is started through either an outright failure to deliver to the standards defined in advance or through the revelation of some unintentional construction defect.

Either way, once this "damage event" has occurred, there is no going back. In both of the situations of failure to achieve quality in the result, if it terminates in litigation, the outcome becomes an expensive proposition for everyone involved. Despite protestations to the contrary, only the attorneys and experts win in litigation. Once the point of litigation has been reached, it is too late to mitigate the damages, and there is little likelihood of recovery, as positions harden into adversarial perspectives. The process will run until one side has reached the limits of its endurance or money, whichever comes first.

Conclusion

The only reliable method to prevent construction litigation over quality is to avoid the damage in the first place. Avoidance of damage means delivery of quality results in line with expectations. For this to occur, the standards by which both construction services and the completed project will be judged must be defined in a sufficiently clear, specific, and achievable manner. The path to this result is to address all the aspects of quality as described in this article.