Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control
5 minutes
5 Questions
In the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA) body of knowledge that underpins the Certified Construction Manager (CCM) credential, Quality Management is one of the core functional areas, and a clear distinction is drawn between Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC). Quality Assurance is the proactive, process-oriented side of quality management. It encompasses the planned and systematic actions established before and during the project to provide confidence that the final product will satisfy the owner's requirements. QA focuses on the 'how' of achieving quality: developing the Quality Management Plan, defining roles and responsibilities, establishing submittal and inspection procedures, qualifying contractors and suppliers, conducting preconstruction and preinstallation meetings, auditing processes, and verifying that the QC program itself is being executed properly. In the CMAA framework, the Construction Manager typically leads QA on behalf of the owner, acting as an independent set of eyes that evaluates whether the contractor's quality system is working. Quality Control is the reactive, product-oriented side. It consists of the operational techniques and activities used to measure, inspect, and test work in place against the contract documents, codes, and standards. QC answers 'Did we build it right?' through activities such as field inspections, material testing (concrete cylinders, soil compaction, weld inspection), checking tolerances, documenting nonconformances, and directing corrective action. Under most delivery methods, QC is primarily the contractor's responsibility, with the CM monitoring and verifying results. The key distinction for CCM candidates: QA is about prevention and systems (building quality in), while QC is about detection and verification (checking quality out). QA is broader and occurs throughout the project lifecycle, including design phase reviews; QC is narrower and occurs largely during construction. Together they form a complete quality program—QA establishes the framework and QC proves conformance—ensuring the owner receives a facility that meets scope, schedule, budget, and performance expectations.
Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control: A Complete CCM Exam Guide
Why This Topic Matters for the CCM Exam
Quality Management is one of the core functional domains tested on the CMAA Certified Construction Manager (CCM) examination, and the distinction between Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) is the single most frequently tested concept within that domain. Candidates routinely lose points here not because the material is difficult, but because the two terms are used loosely in everyday practice and the exam demands precision. The CMAA Standards of Practice draw a sharp line between the two, and the exam expects you to know which party performs which function, when each occurs in the project life cycle, and what documents and activities belong to each. If you can master this distinction, you will also find it easier to answer questions on the Quality Management Plan, nonconformance handling, inspection and testing, commissioning, and the Construction Manager's oversight role.
What Quality Means in the CMAA Framework
Before separating QA from QC, you must understand how the CMAA defines quality itself. In the Standards of Practice, quality is conformance to the requirements established by the owner and documented in the contract documents, plans, and specifications. Quality is not a synonym for luxury, highest grade, or gold-plating. A low-cost warehouse built exactly to its specifications is a high-quality project; a lavish building that fails to meet its specified tolerances is not. This definition is the foundation for everything that follows, because both QA and QC are organized around achieving and verifying conformance to documented requirements.
What Quality Assurance (QA) Is
Quality Assurance is the planned and systematic set of actions, processes, and procedures established to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the stated quality requirements. QA is:
• Process-oriented – it focuses on how the work is planned, organized, and managed rather than on individual pieces of finished work.
• Preventive and proactive – it seeks to stop defects from occurring in the first place.
• Management-level – it establishes the system within which QC operates.
• Audit-driven – it verifies that the QC program is in place, is being followed, and is effective.
Typical QA activities include developing the Quality Management Plan (QMP), defining roles and responsibilities, establishing submittal and documentation procedures, reviewing and approving the contractor's QC plan, conducting audits of the QC program, verifying that testing laboratories and personnel are qualified and certified, conducting preconstruction and preparatory meetings, reviewing design documents for constructability and clarity, and tracking trends in nonconformances to identify systemic problems. In the CMAA model, QA is primarily the responsibility of the owner, and on most projects the owner delegates this function to the Construction Manager. The designer also contributes to QA through design quality reviews and by producing clear, complete, and coordinated contract documents.
What Quality Control (QC) Is
Quality Control is the set of specific activities used to measure, inspect, and test the work to determine whether it conforms to the requirements. QC is:
• Product-oriented – it focuses on the actual materials, components, and installed work.
• Detective and reactive – it identifies defects and nonconformances after or during the production of work so they can be corrected.
• Operational-level – it is performed in the field and in the shop, often daily.
• Inspection- and test-driven – it generates measurable, documented results.
Typical QC activities include field inspections, material sampling and laboratory testing (concrete cylinders, soil compaction, weld testing), checking dimensions and tolerances, reviewing mockups, verifying that materials delivered match approved submittals, performing the contractor's three-phase inspections (preparatory, initial, follow-up), maintaining daily QC reports, and documenting deficiencies and their correction. In the CMAA model, QC is primarily the responsibility of the contractor, who is contractually obligated to deliver conforming work and is therefore responsible for controlling the quality of its own work and that of its subcontractors and suppliers. The CM may also perform independent verification inspections and testing on behalf of the owner, but this is characterized as owner QA verification rather than relieving the contractor of its QC duty.
The Key Distinctions at a Glance
Memorize these paired contrasts, because exam questions are almost always built on one of them:
• Focus: QA = process and system; QC = product and work in place.
• Timing: QA = before and throughout (planning and oversight); QC = during and after production of work.
• Nature: QA = prevention; QC = detection and correction.
• Primary party: QA = owner, delegated to the CM; QC = contractor.
• Tool: QA = audits, plans, procedures, training, qualification reviews; QC = inspections, tests, measurements, checklists.
• Question asked: QA asks Are we doing the right things, the right way, with the right system?; QC asks Did this specific piece of work meet the specification?
• Output: QA = Quality Management Plan, audit reports, trend analyses, approved QC plans; QC = inspection reports, test results, daily QC logs, nonconformance reports.
A useful memory device: QA = Assurance = Approach (the system and the plan), while QC = Control = Checking (the hands-on verification). Another: QA builds confidence; QC builds evidence.
How QA and QC Work Together in Practice
QA and QC are not competing alternatives; they are complementary layers of a single quality management system. The relationship works like this:
1. The owner establishes quality requirements in the program and contract documents, often with CM input during the pre-design and design phases.
2. The CM develops the Quality Management Plan as part of the Construction Management Plan. The QMP defines quality objectives, roles, responsibilities, procedures, communication protocols, document control, inspection and testing requirements, and how nonconformances will be handled. This is a QA activity.
3. Design-phase quality is addressed through design reviews, constructability reviews, interdisciplinary coordination checks, and value engineering. These reduce defects at their source and are QA functions.
4. The contractor prepares a QC plan describing its inspection and testing program, personnel, laboratories, and procedures. The CM reviews and accepts this plan on the owner's behalf. Preparing the plan is a contractor QC responsibility; reviewing and approving it is a CM QA responsibility.
5. During construction, the contractor executes QC through preparatory meetings, initial inspections, follow-up inspections, testing, and documentation for each definable feature of work.
6. The CM performs QA oversight by auditing the contractor's QC records, witnessing selected tests, conducting independent verification testing where the QMP requires it, reviewing submittals for conformance, and monitoring trends in deficiencies.
7. Nonconformances are identified (a QC function), documented in a Nonconformance Report, and resolved through rework, repair, or an accept-as-is decision made by the owner and designer. The CM tracks the resolution and analyzes recurring problems to identify process weaknesses (a QA function).
8. At closeout, commissioning and testing demonstrate that systems perform as specified, and the complete quality record (test reports, inspection logs, certifications, as-builts) is turned over to the owner.
The important principle is that the contractor cannot inspect quality into the work and neither can the CM. Quality is built in through good processes (QA) and verified through good checking (QC). A strong QA program reduces the number of defects QC will find, and a strong QC program provides the data that lets QA improve the process.
Related Concepts Frequently Tested Alongside QA/QC
• Quality Management Plan (QMP): the CM-prepared document that integrates QA and QC for the project. Know that it is developed early, is a component of the overall Construction Management Plan, and is updated as the project evolves.
• Cost of quality: prevention costs and appraisal costs (the price of conformance) versus internal and external failure costs (the price of nonconformance). The exam favors the position that investing in prevention (QA) is cheaper than paying for failures discovered late.
• Three-phase inspection: preparatory, initial, and follow-up phases for each definable feature of work. This is a QC methodology executed by the contractor but monitored by the CM.
• Submittals: shop drawings, product data, and samples reviewed for conformance with the design intent. Submittal review is part of the quality system; the designer reviews for design conformance and the CM manages the process and log.
• Mockups and first-work inspections: QC tools that establish the standard of acceptance before full production.
• Nonconformance Report (NCR): documents work that does not meet requirements and tracks its disposition.
• Independent testing agencies: may be retained by the owner (QA verification) or by the contractor (QC testing); the exam may ask who pays for retesting after a failure, and the standard answer is the contractor.
• Continuous improvement and lessons learned: QA activities that feed back into future projects.
Common Traps and Misconceptions
• Believing that QA and QC are interchangeable terms. They are not, and the exam punishes this.
• Assuming the CM performs QC. The CM oversees, audits, and verifies; the contractor controls the quality of its own work.
• Assuming that quality means the best possible materials. It means conformance to requirements.
• Thinking inspection alone produces quality. The CMAA position is that quality must be planned and built in; inspection only reveals whether that happened.
• Confusing the designer's role. The designer establishes requirements and reviews submittals for design conformance but does not run the field QC program.
• Misplacing timing. QA begins in the pre-design and design phases; it is not a construction-only activity.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control
1. Identify the key verb or noun in the question. Words such as plan, system, procedure, audit, policy, training, qualification, verify the program, and prevent point to QA. Words such as inspect, test, measure, sample, check, mockup, tolerance, reject, and deficiency point to QC.
2. Ask who the actor is. If the question describes the contractor performing an activity on its own work, the answer is almost always QC. If it describes the owner or CM establishing or verifying a system, the answer is QA.
3. Ask when the activity occurs. Activities during planning, design, and procurement that set up the quality system are QA. Activities performed on work in place or materials delivered are QC.
4. Remember the CMAA definition of quality. If an answer choice equates quality with highest grade or most expensive, eliminate it. The correct choice will reference conformance to requirements or the owner's documented expectations.
5. Choose prevention over detection when asked for the best or most effective approach. The exam consistently rewards answers that address root causes and processes rather than answers that simply increase inspection frequency.
6. Know the CM's role precisely. The CM develops the QMP, reviews and accepts the contractor's QC plan, monitors and audits QC performance, coordinates owner testing, manages submittals and NCRs, and reports to the owner. The CM does not take over the contractor's QC responsibility and does not assume the designer's authority to approve deviations from design intent.
7. Watch for absolute language. Choices stating that the CM is responsible for all quality on the project or that QC alone ensures quality are usually wrong because they ignore the shared, layered nature of the system.
8. When two choices look right, pick the more systemic one for QA questions and the more specific, measurable one for QC questions.
9. Link the question to the Quality Management Plan. Many scenario questions are really asking what the QMP should contain or what the CM should do according to the QMP. Anchoring your answer to the QMP framework keeps you aligned with the CMAA Standards of Practice.
Practice Questions
Question 1: The Construction Manager reviews the contractor's inspection logs and witnesses a sample of concrete cylinder breaks to confirm the testing program is functioning as intended. This activity is best described as:
A. Quality control performed by the CM
B. Quality assurance performed by the CM
C. Quality control performed by the contractor
D. Design review
Answer: B. The CM is auditing and verifying the effectiveness of the contractor's QC program, which is a QA oversight function.
Question 2: Which of the following is the primary purpose of quality control?
A. To establish the policies that will govern quality on the project
B. To verify through inspection and testing that work conforms to the requirements
C. To determine the owner's quality expectations during programming
D. To audit the project team's adherence to the Quality Management Plan
Answer: B. QC is the hands-on measurement and verification of the work itself.
Question 3: According to CMAA Standards of Practice, quality on a construction project is best defined as:
A. The highest grade of materials and workmanship available
B. Work that exceeds industry norms
C. Conformance to the requirements established by the owner
D. Work accepted without any nonconformance reports
Answer: C. Quality is conformance to documented requirements, not maximum grade.
Question 4: Recurring failures of compaction tests on a site are traced to inadequate training of the contractor's field crew. The most appropriate CM response that reflects a quality assurance approach is to:
A. Double the frequency of compaction testing
B. Reject all placed fill and require removal
C. Require the contractor to revise its QC plan to address training and procedures before proceeding
D. Hire additional inspectors to monitor every lift
Answer: C. QA addresses the process and root cause; simply increasing inspection is a QC-only reaction.
Question 5: Who is primarily responsible for quality control of installed work on a traditional CM-agency project?
A. The owner
B. The designer
C. The Construction Manager
D. The contractor
Answer: D. The contractor is contractually responsible for controlling the quality of its own work; the owner and CM provide assurance.
Final Summary
Quality Assurance is the planned, preventive, process-focused system established by the owner and administered by the Construction Manager to create confidence that requirements will be met. Quality Control is the inspection, testing, and measurement of actual work, performed primarily by the contractor, to detect and correct nonconformance. Both are organized around the CMAA definition of quality as conformance to requirements, both are integrated through the Quality Management Plan, and both are necessary. On the exam, decode each question by asking three things: what is the focus (process or product), who is the actor (owner/CM or contractor), and what is the nature of the activity (prevent or detect). Answer those three and you will answer the question correctly.
Quality Management is one of the core functional domains tested on the CMAA Certified Construction Manager (CCM) examination, and the distinction between Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) is the single most frequently tested concept within that domain. Candidates routinely lose points here not because the material is difficult, but because the two terms are used loosely in everyday practice and the exam demands precision. The CMAA Standards of Practice draw a sharp line between the two, and the exam expects you to know which party performs which function, when each occurs in the project life cycle, and what documents and activities belong to each. If you can master this distinction, you will also find it easier to answer questions on the Quality Management Plan, nonconformance handling, inspection and testing, commissioning, and the Construction Manager's oversight role.
What Quality Means in the CMAA Framework
Before separating QA from QC, you must understand how the CMAA defines quality itself. In the Standards of Practice, quality is conformance to the requirements established by the owner and documented in the contract documents, plans, and specifications. Quality is not a synonym for luxury, highest grade, or gold-plating. A low-cost warehouse built exactly to its specifications is a high-quality project; a lavish building that fails to meet its specified tolerances is not. This definition is the foundation for everything that follows, because both QA and QC are organized around achieving and verifying conformance to documented requirements.
What Quality Assurance (QA) Is
Quality Assurance is the planned and systematic set of actions, processes, and procedures established to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the stated quality requirements. QA is:
• Process-oriented – it focuses on how the work is planned, organized, and managed rather than on individual pieces of finished work.
• Preventive and proactive – it seeks to stop defects from occurring in the first place.
• Management-level – it establishes the system within which QC operates.
• Audit-driven – it verifies that the QC program is in place, is being followed, and is effective.
Typical QA activities include developing the Quality Management Plan (QMP), defining roles and responsibilities, establishing submittal and documentation procedures, reviewing and approving the contractor's QC plan, conducting audits of the QC program, verifying that testing laboratories and personnel are qualified and certified, conducting preconstruction and preparatory meetings, reviewing design documents for constructability and clarity, and tracking trends in nonconformances to identify systemic problems. In the CMAA model, QA is primarily the responsibility of the owner, and on most projects the owner delegates this function to the Construction Manager. The designer also contributes to QA through design quality reviews and by producing clear, complete, and coordinated contract documents.
What Quality Control (QC) Is
Quality Control is the set of specific activities used to measure, inspect, and test the work to determine whether it conforms to the requirements. QC is:
• Product-oriented – it focuses on the actual materials, components, and installed work.
• Detective and reactive – it identifies defects and nonconformances after or during the production of work so they can be corrected.
• Operational-level – it is performed in the field and in the shop, often daily.
• Inspection- and test-driven – it generates measurable, documented results.
Typical QC activities include field inspections, material sampling and laboratory testing (concrete cylinders, soil compaction, weld testing), checking dimensions and tolerances, reviewing mockups, verifying that materials delivered match approved submittals, performing the contractor's three-phase inspections (preparatory, initial, follow-up), maintaining daily QC reports, and documenting deficiencies and their correction. In the CMAA model, QC is primarily the responsibility of the contractor, who is contractually obligated to deliver conforming work and is therefore responsible for controlling the quality of its own work and that of its subcontractors and suppliers. The CM may also perform independent verification inspections and testing on behalf of the owner, but this is characterized as owner QA verification rather than relieving the contractor of its QC duty.
The Key Distinctions at a Glance
Memorize these paired contrasts, because exam questions are almost always built on one of them:
• Focus: QA = process and system; QC = product and work in place.
• Timing: QA = before and throughout (planning and oversight); QC = during and after production of work.
• Nature: QA = prevention; QC = detection and correction.
• Primary party: QA = owner, delegated to the CM; QC = contractor.
• Tool: QA = audits, plans, procedures, training, qualification reviews; QC = inspections, tests, measurements, checklists.
• Question asked: QA asks Are we doing the right things, the right way, with the right system?; QC asks Did this specific piece of work meet the specification?
• Output: QA = Quality Management Plan, audit reports, trend analyses, approved QC plans; QC = inspection reports, test results, daily QC logs, nonconformance reports.
A useful memory device: QA = Assurance = Approach (the system and the plan), while QC = Control = Checking (the hands-on verification). Another: QA builds confidence; QC builds evidence.
How QA and QC Work Together in Practice
QA and QC are not competing alternatives; they are complementary layers of a single quality management system. The relationship works like this:
1. The owner establishes quality requirements in the program and contract documents, often with CM input during the pre-design and design phases.
2. The CM develops the Quality Management Plan as part of the Construction Management Plan. The QMP defines quality objectives, roles, responsibilities, procedures, communication protocols, document control, inspection and testing requirements, and how nonconformances will be handled. This is a QA activity.
3. Design-phase quality is addressed through design reviews, constructability reviews, interdisciplinary coordination checks, and value engineering. These reduce defects at their source and are QA functions.
4. The contractor prepares a QC plan describing its inspection and testing program, personnel, laboratories, and procedures. The CM reviews and accepts this plan on the owner's behalf. Preparing the plan is a contractor QC responsibility; reviewing and approving it is a CM QA responsibility.
5. During construction, the contractor executes QC through preparatory meetings, initial inspections, follow-up inspections, testing, and documentation for each definable feature of work.
6. The CM performs QA oversight by auditing the contractor's QC records, witnessing selected tests, conducting independent verification testing where the QMP requires it, reviewing submittals for conformance, and monitoring trends in deficiencies.
7. Nonconformances are identified (a QC function), documented in a Nonconformance Report, and resolved through rework, repair, or an accept-as-is decision made by the owner and designer. The CM tracks the resolution and analyzes recurring problems to identify process weaknesses (a QA function).
8. At closeout, commissioning and testing demonstrate that systems perform as specified, and the complete quality record (test reports, inspection logs, certifications, as-builts) is turned over to the owner.
The important principle is that the contractor cannot inspect quality into the work and neither can the CM. Quality is built in through good processes (QA) and verified through good checking (QC). A strong QA program reduces the number of defects QC will find, and a strong QC program provides the data that lets QA improve the process.
Related Concepts Frequently Tested Alongside QA/QC
• Quality Management Plan (QMP): the CM-prepared document that integrates QA and QC for the project. Know that it is developed early, is a component of the overall Construction Management Plan, and is updated as the project evolves.
• Cost of quality: prevention costs and appraisal costs (the price of conformance) versus internal and external failure costs (the price of nonconformance). The exam favors the position that investing in prevention (QA) is cheaper than paying for failures discovered late.
• Three-phase inspection: preparatory, initial, and follow-up phases for each definable feature of work. This is a QC methodology executed by the contractor but monitored by the CM.
• Submittals: shop drawings, product data, and samples reviewed for conformance with the design intent. Submittal review is part of the quality system; the designer reviews for design conformance and the CM manages the process and log.
• Mockups and first-work inspections: QC tools that establish the standard of acceptance before full production.
• Nonconformance Report (NCR): documents work that does not meet requirements and tracks its disposition.
• Independent testing agencies: may be retained by the owner (QA verification) or by the contractor (QC testing); the exam may ask who pays for retesting after a failure, and the standard answer is the contractor.
• Continuous improvement and lessons learned: QA activities that feed back into future projects.
Common Traps and Misconceptions
• Believing that QA and QC are interchangeable terms. They are not, and the exam punishes this.
• Assuming the CM performs QC. The CM oversees, audits, and verifies; the contractor controls the quality of its own work.
• Assuming that quality means the best possible materials. It means conformance to requirements.
• Thinking inspection alone produces quality. The CMAA position is that quality must be planned and built in; inspection only reveals whether that happened.
• Confusing the designer's role. The designer establishes requirements and reviews submittals for design conformance but does not run the field QC program.
• Misplacing timing. QA begins in the pre-design and design phases; it is not a construction-only activity.
Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control
1. Identify the key verb or noun in the question. Words such as plan, system, procedure, audit, policy, training, qualification, verify the program, and prevent point to QA. Words such as inspect, test, measure, sample, check, mockup, tolerance, reject, and deficiency point to QC.
2. Ask who the actor is. If the question describes the contractor performing an activity on its own work, the answer is almost always QC. If it describes the owner or CM establishing or verifying a system, the answer is QA.
3. Ask when the activity occurs. Activities during planning, design, and procurement that set up the quality system are QA. Activities performed on work in place or materials delivered are QC.
4. Remember the CMAA definition of quality. If an answer choice equates quality with highest grade or most expensive, eliminate it. The correct choice will reference conformance to requirements or the owner's documented expectations.
5. Choose prevention over detection when asked for the best or most effective approach. The exam consistently rewards answers that address root causes and processes rather than answers that simply increase inspection frequency.
6. Know the CM's role precisely. The CM develops the QMP, reviews and accepts the contractor's QC plan, monitors and audits QC performance, coordinates owner testing, manages submittals and NCRs, and reports to the owner. The CM does not take over the contractor's QC responsibility and does not assume the designer's authority to approve deviations from design intent.
7. Watch for absolute language. Choices stating that the CM is responsible for all quality on the project or that QC alone ensures quality are usually wrong because they ignore the shared, layered nature of the system.
8. When two choices look right, pick the more systemic one for QA questions and the more specific, measurable one for QC questions.
9. Link the question to the Quality Management Plan. Many scenario questions are really asking what the QMP should contain or what the CM should do according to the QMP. Anchoring your answer to the QMP framework keeps you aligned with the CMAA Standards of Practice.
Practice Questions
Question 1: The Construction Manager reviews the contractor's inspection logs and witnesses a sample of concrete cylinder breaks to confirm the testing program is functioning as intended. This activity is best described as:
A. Quality control performed by the CM
B. Quality assurance performed by the CM
C. Quality control performed by the contractor
D. Design review
Answer: B. The CM is auditing and verifying the effectiveness of the contractor's QC program, which is a QA oversight function.
Question 2: Which of the following is the primary purpose of quality control?
A. To establish the policies that will govern quality on the project
B. To verify through inspection and testing that work conforms to the requirements
C. To determine the owner's quality expectations during programming
D. To audit the project team's adherence to the Quality Management Plan
Answer: B. QC is the hands-on measurement and verification of the work itself.
Question 3: According to CMAA Standards of Practice, quality on a construction project is best defined as:
A. The highest grade of materials and workmanship available
B. Work that exceeds industry norms
C. Conformance to the requirements established by the owner
D. Work accepted without any nonconformance reports
Answer: C. Quality is conformance to documented requirements, not maximum grade.
Question 4: Recurring failures of compaction tests on a site are traced to inadequate training of the contractor's field crew. The most appropriate CM response that reflects a quality assurance approach is to:
A. Double the frequency of compaction testing
B. Reject all placed fill and require removal
C. Require the contractor to revise its QC plan to address training and procedures before proceeding
D. Hire additional inspectors to monitor every lift
Answer: C. QA addresses the process and root cause; simply increasing inspection is a QC-only reaction.
Question 5: Who is primarily responsible for quality control of installed work on a traditional CM-agency project?
A. The owner
B. The designer
C. The Construction Manager
D. The contractor
Answer: D. The contractor is contractually responsible for controlling the quality of its own work; the owner and CM provide assurance.
Final Summary
Quality Assurance is the planned, preventive, process-focused system established by the owner and administered by the Construction Manager to create confidence that requirements will be met. Quality Control is the inspection, testing, and measurement of actual work, performed primarily by the contractor, to detect and correct nonconformance. Both are organized around the CMAA definition of quality as conformance to requirements, both are integrated through the Quality Management Plan, and both are necessary. On the exam, decode each question by asking three things: what is the focus (process or product), who is the actor (owner/CM or contractor), and what is the nature of the activity (prevent or detect). Answer those three and you will answer the question correctly.
Test mode:
CMAA CCM - Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control Example Questions
Test your knowledge of Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control
Question 1
On a university laboratory building, the construction manager's quality assurance inspector walks a floor that the general contractor's quality control inspector has already marked as inspected. The specifications require sealed joints on the fume hood exhaust ductwork. The quality assurance inspector finds that a mechanical subcontractor's crew has left several joints unsealed and is still installing duct. What is the BEST action for the quality assurance inspector to take?
Question 2
On an office building, the general contractor's quality control (QC) inspector asks the construction manager's quality assurance (QA) inspector to co-sign the contractor's daily QC checklist for a concrete placement they both observed. The QC inspector says a joint signature will speed the owner's acceptance of the work. What should the construction manager direct the QA inspector to do?
Question 3
On a municipal library, the owner cuts the construction manager's field quality assurance budget midway through construction. One part-time inspector remains. The general contractor's quality control staff stays at the level the approved Construction Quality Control Plan specifies, and its testing continues as scheduled. How should the construction manager BEST deploy the reduced quality assurance effort to protect the owner's interest?
Unlock Premium Access
Certified Construction Manager (CMAA)
- Access to ALL Certifications: Study for any certification on our platform with one subscription
- 3113 Superior-grade Certified Construction Manager (CMAA) practice questions
- Unlimited practice tests across all certifications
- Detailed explanations for every question
- CMAA CCM: 5 full exams plus all other certification exams
- 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee: Full refund within 30 days if unsatisfied
- Risk-Free: 7-day free trial with all premium features!
More Quality Assurance Versus Quality Control questions
22 questions (total)
Other Quality Management concepts
Constructibility ReviewsContractor Quality Control PlanInspection and Testing ProgramsMaterial Acceptance and Testing AgenciesNonconforming and Deficient WorkOwner Quality Objectives and Measurable CriteriaPost-Construction Quality Assessment and Lessons LearnedProgram, Technical and Code Design ReviewsQualification-Based Selection of Project ParticipantsQuality Documentation and RecordsQuality Management PlanQuality Requirements in the Specifications