Quality Assurance/Quality Control - QA/QC
What is Quality Assurance (QA)?
QA is an integrated system of management activities that involves planning, implementation, documentation, assessment, reporting, and quality improvement to ensure that a process, item, or service is of the type and quality required for the project needs.
A QA plan should include proper documentation of all project related procedures, training of staff and volunteers, study design, data management and analysis and specific quality control measures.
What is Quality Control (QC)?
QC is an overall system of technical activities that measures the attributes and performance of a process, item, or service against defined standards to verify that they meet the stated requirements established by the customer. QC also involves analytical frequency requirements and control limits.
Examples of quality control components are field blanks, field duplicates, lab duplicates, spike samples, calibration blanks, and calibration standards.
QA/QC Training Presentations
Online QA/QC Training
The SWAMP Quality Assurance Team (QAT) has conducted webinar trainings, available for reference.
- (SWAMP) Quality Control and Sample Handling Guidelines (12/12/2013; webinar length - 21 min)
- An Introduction to the Concept of Reporting Limits (01/19/2012; webinar length - 58 min)
Hosted by the California Water Quality Monitoring Collaborative Network (CWQMCN) - Selecting and Working with Laboratories (05/19/2011; webinar length - 62 min)
Contacts
- State Board QA Officer
Ranita Prasad
Ranita.Prasad@waterboards.ca.gov
(916) 341-5224
- OIMA Help Desk
OIMA-Helpdesk@waterboards.ca.gov
