Winning a government contract is like making any other type of sale – as customers, government agencies want to ensure that the products and services they're purchasing are of high quality. To this end, government contracts often require specific quality-assurance procedures, which will vary based on the contract and agency.
A complete list of government quality-assurance regulations is contained in Part 46 of the FAR. However, it's unlikely that a government contractor will have to comply with each of these requirements for every government contract.
Government Quality Assurance Types
The bid or RFP document will specify which quality-assurance procedures will be required:
- For commercial items, the contractor's pre-existing QA process may be sufficient, although for certain items additional testing or inspection by an agency official may be required.
- For non-commercial items in contracts of $100,000 or less, the contractor may be required to perform testing and inspections itself and provide documentation to the agency that the QA standards specified in the contract are being met. The agency may also wish to perform its own inspections if deemed necessary.
- For non-commercial items in contracts for over $100,000, the contract may require specific agency inspection procedures. The agency may want to conduct its own inspections during production, and may ask the contractor to provide records of its own inspections.
- If the items are particularly intricate or important to the project, additional higher-level quality standards may be required, most commonly those of the ISO (International Organization of Standardization). For more on the ISO, visit www.iso.org.
Getting Started with Quality Assurance
Whatever quality-assurance procedures are required or performed by the agency, it's the contractor's responsibility to make sure that all standards described in the contract are being met. Start putting quality-assurance standards in place now — don't wait until you find an RFP that requires quality-assurance documentation.
Once you have clearly documented your QA process, keep it in an easy-to-access location, either in a 3-ring binder or on a computer hard drive (don't forget to back up your computer files on a Zip drive or other external-storage location). Any changes to the process should be immediately changed in the documentation as well – keep a log of any and all changes made.
