Don’t miss the point with your ITPs
Inspection and test plans (ITPs) are a ubiquitous part of nearly all civil projects these days. The question is, are they useful? One of our observations, drawn from many sites and clients, is that ITPs have morphed into something more like a work instruction or process flow. People have tried to make ITPs the ‘everything’ document and, when that happens, they rapidly become a ‘nothing’ document. In many cases, they’ve become so large, convoluted and all-encompassing they are hard to use and even harder to interpret after the fact.
Keep it simple
Our suggestion is to look critically at your ITPs. If they are not making your job easier, consider a change. One of the first actions we take when reviewing them for clients is pare them back to exactly what they are supposed to be – a document that tells everyone what inspections and tests are required…nothing else. For example, if you’ve got ITPs that tell you about aspects such as safety rules, community relations and programming, then they need a rethink. All of these are important and need to be managed to support project success, but ITPs are not the place or process to do that.
Our tip: use the ‘find’ function (CTRL+F) to search the specification for terms similar to the list below. This is a really quick way to ensure you’ve picked up all of your important metrics:
Hold
Must
Minimum
Maximum
At least
Inspect
Observe
…and abbreviations like m, mm, kpa, % and degrees
An ITP should seamlessly mesh with the checklist (if that’s the system you run) and, combined, they should drive the testing and inspection process and ensure you have a conforming set of records to close a given lot.
Get your team on board
With streamlined ITPs, another practical step is to consider reviewing your ITP register and ensure everyone in your team knows what each ITP is for and, just as importantly, what they are not for.
Quality assurance processes, like ITPs, should make your team’s job easier, not harder. If your ITPs are a burden, we encourage you to get the red pen out and simplify them back to the real purpose they hold.
