Quality Assurance and Quality Control in Surveys

The best performing organizations manage quality by incorporating a quality assurance program consisting of good project management, a quality control system to ensure quality at the product and process levels, and a compliance and monitoring system to ensure that the quality assurance program is being followed and is producing the desired results. They also document their methods using current best methods (CBMs) and disseminated these throughout the organization so that good practices will replace poor or inefficient ones. This chapter provides a concise yet comprehensive summary of the current thinking on product, process and organizational quality in the best performing survey organizations. The concepts and systems for ensuring high quality survey products in all organizations, but particularly larger ones, are described and explained.