QUALITY PROGRAMS

Quality and Data Assurance

From our very inception, Byers has prided itself on the quality of our services. Our teams follow logical, systematic processes consistent with the size and nature of the projects we manage.

We have now taken the next step - codified our processes so that we can more quickly assimilate new employees and reinforce practices with seasoned personnel. This resulted in the development of our data services Project Methodology guide. The guide consists of explanations of each activity (task and sub-tasks), step-by-step procedures, examples, templates, and forms needed to conduct day-to-day business and project management functions.

Quality Assurance involves processes primarily designed to verify the accuracy and completeness of the database according to required specifications. Byers works with its clients to ensure that verification is achieved through a combination of automated validation procedures and visual inspection procedures. The proper use of acceptance sampling during the visual quality acceptance process is essential to project success. Byers works with its clients to develop sampling plan procedures based on the ANSI, Sampling Procedures and Tables for Inspection by Attributes, ANSI/ASQC Z1.4-1993 to meet quality requirements. These procedures describe how to determine the proper sample size and the criteria for determining acceptability based on the quality requirements. The use of ANSI standards ensures that Byers and its clients obtain the same quality results as if conducting a 100% inspection, but at a reduced cost. The goal is to have a measurable and repeatable system to measure quality.

Byers has learned over its thirty years in the data mapping business that monitoring and reporting the quality, the audit process, and those results are especially important. The audit is a formal examination or verification of our products, services, or processes. These checks are especially important during the incubation period (ramp-up phase) and can be little more than a random spot check to ensure that the requirements of the task are being met.

The objective of the audit is to gain confidence that the product being delivered meets or exceeds our client’s minimum quality requirement (MQR) thereby mitigating the risk that the delivery not be accepted. In order to meet our audit objectives, substantive and compliance audits are performed on all of our data service projects.

A substantive audit is one that is substantial and essential. Substantial in the sense that a statistical cross sample of the work is reviewed in detail and essential in the sense that without it our objective is jeopardized.

A compliance audit ensures that the results of a substantive audit are in accordance with the criteria established for performing and tabulating the substantive audit.

All substantive audits are performed by project resources and performed prior to each delivery. No portion or part of the product is to be excluded from the sampling base, i.e., maps that had been previously verified will not be excluded. At the onset of a project, an agreement with the client is negotiated to ensure the standardization of the acceptance testing procedures and rules. The procedures and rules should be included as part of the contract or statement of work. If our client has established procedures for performing quality acceptance testing, then our audit process, as well as our first-run verification will mimic it as closely as possible. Where the client does not have a formal acceptance procedure, we will work to reach an agreement on the quality acceptance procedures that we will use internally. Summary results of each audit are then forwarded to the currently designated representative(s).

The following are essential tools for performing a substantive audit:

• A delivery ready product
• Project specifications
• Acceptance procedures
• Element and error value schedule
• Item and element count process
• Error capture and tally system (forms, files, etc.)
• Audit failure follow-up procedures
• Qualified personnel
• Sampling plan

Non-project resources perform all compliance audits. The objective of the compliance audit is to ensure:

• that a project's audit followed the established rules and procedures for pulling audit samples
• that the errors found in an audit are properly categorized and scored
• that the calculations used in determining the average outgoing quality (AOQ) results of an audit are correct

The actual project audit materials (sources, plots, tally forms, error sheets, etc.) are used for a compliance audit. The results of this audit, along with any recommendations for corrective actions, are submitted to the project manager for review.

The following are essential tools for performing a compliance audit:

• A substantive audit must have been completed
• Project specifications
• Acceptance procedures
• Element and error value schedule
• Item and element count reports
• Actual materials used in the substantive audit (sources, plots, tally forms, errors sheets, etc.)
• Summary results of the substantive audit
• Qualified personnel

The data and information we gather from these audits are reviewed and studied to determine if there are any deficiencies in our procedures, specifications, software, training, etc. We can use the results to cross-validate the first run quality (FRQ) indicators, i.e., if FRQ was high and AOQ was fail or marginally low, that might be a signal to review our verification process or perform some level of internal validations of our FRQ verification.

For more information on data conversion, contact us now