Quality Assurance: Improving Safety & Efficiency in Construction

By

Emma De Francesco

Reviewed by 

Nicholas Dunbar

and Zoe Mullan

Last Updated Mar 2, 2026

By

Emma De Francesco

Reviewed By

Nicholas Dunbar

and Zoe Mullan

Quality assurance (which differs from quality control) works to prevent quality issues before they arise, helping construction companies operate more effectively and profitably.

This article explores the role of quality assurance in guaranteeing safety and efficiency in construction projects.

What Is Quality Assurance?

Quality assurance (QA) in construction is the proactive implementation of practices, procedures, and processes to ensure quality standards are met across construction projects.

As a practice, quality assurance applies across the whole business, covering details such as:

• Material Quality: Inspecting materials on delivery to verify they meet quality, size, and shape standards
• Equipment Condition: Confirming that equipment and machinery are safe and appropriate for the chosen environment
• Project Management: Setting and maintaining programme, scope, and budget
• Skills & Certification: Ensuring that teams have the right skills for the projects they work on
• Quality Measurement Standards: Deciding and communicating what "good" looks like

QA applies at task, project and company levels. A task-level QA programme might provide a step-by-step process for installing kitchen joinery. In contrast, a company-level quality assurance programme might involve investing in across-the-board team training.

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

QA is often used synonymously with quality control (QC). While both share the same goal – ensuring quality standards – there is an important distinction between the two. Quality assurance is preventative: it supports the UK construction industry's drive for a "Right First Time" culture, championed by the Get It Right Initiative (GIRI), an industry-led organisation focused on eliminating error across the construction sector. Quality control is reactive, used to catch and correct issues before they become problematic.

To illustrate, consider a residential construction company specialising in kitchen fit-outs. For a standard process of this kind, QA standards might require the team to:

• Complete daily equipment checks and Goods Received Notes (GRN) at the beginning of each shift
• Follow a documented process listing the order in which tasks are to be completed (e.g., glass last, to avoid scratching)
• Adhere to supplier assessment processes for materials suppliers

Consistently following these QA steps should help avoid quality issues in the work. For QC, the site manager would then work through a final snagging list. Once everything meets the quality standards, they can sign off and pass the project to handover.

Think of QC as the team's wicketkeeper, ready to catch any unexpected problems that slip through QA defences. Across UK construction sites, QC processes tend to be more plentiful than documented QA protocols – a pattern consistently observed by industry bodies including GIRI, whose research highlights the sector's tendency to detect and correct errors rather than prevent them. That said, it is not a "one-or-the-other" situation – both must be firmly in place.

Why QA is Important in Construction

Strong quality assurance protocols deliver several important benefits for construction organisations. Specifically, QA helps construction businesses:

• Maintain Compliance with Legislation

  Including the Building Safety Act 2022 and UK Building Regulations. Quality work is the only way to meet these stringent legal requirements.

• Manage Site Safety

  Poor quality work can result in material damage, falls from height, and injuries, both for contractors on site and end users after the fact.

• Protect Brand Image

  Quality work enhances customer satisfaction, strengthens a company's reputation, and increases the likelihood of word-of-mouth referrals, a key source of new work for many construction businesses.

• Minimise Rework

  Failing to implement QA carries significant cost and programme implications. Rework can have a substantial impact on project profitability.

Compliance Alert: QA & the Building Safety Act

For High-Risk Buildings (HRBs), quality assurance is no longer optional. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) requires evidence that the building has been constructed in line with approved plans. Failing to provide this QA evidence can delay project handover (Gateway 3) or lead to prosecution.

The Golden Thread of Information

Following Grenfell, the Building Safety Act requires a "Golden Thread" of information – a digital audit trail of how a building was designed, built, and maintained. Strong QA processes are the engine of the Golden Thread, providing the evidence required to demonstrate that building safety risks have been managed throughout the construction life cycle.

Six Quality Assurance Procedures to Implement Now

1. Define & Document Quality Standards

One of the most important steps towards improving quality is precisely defining what "quality" means for each aspect of work, often aligning with ISO 9001 standards to ensure a globally recognised level of management.

For plasterboard installation, for example, standards might cover how long the task should take, acceptable tolerances for gaps between sheets, and required finishing levels.

Once company leadership has defined those standards – in collaboration with site operatives who provide real-world context – the next step is documentation. Clear checklists should be created for each quality standard, supported by images or videos demonstrating when standards have and have not been met. These documented standards should be regularly reviewed and updated to reflect new technologies, products, processes, and lessons learned from previous projects.

2. Define Stakeholder Responsibilities

Under UK regulations, quality is a shared responsibility among specific Dutyholders. The Client sets quality expectations; the Principal Designer ensures constructability; and the Principal/Main Contractor manages site execution. Effective QA plans must clearly define the role each Dutyholder plays in signing off on quality benchmarks.

3. Standardise Processes & Workflows

Quality should not only be maintained in isolation but also applied consistently across and between jobs. The most effective way to achieve this is by standardising processes and workflows where possible.

In an office fit-out, for instance, certain tasks must follow a specific sequence – such as constructing and finishing internal walls before laying the carpet. Principal Contractors should standardise workflows through Method Statement documentation and ensure all site operatives performing the work have access to it.

4. Build QA into Construction Phase Development

While QC is often associated with checking outputs at defined stages throughout a project – and particularly at completion – QA encompasses the entire project life cycle. When setting up the project timeline and listing tasks, the key question to ask is: what steps can the team take to ensure quality standards are met at each stage?

Project managers should create a clear checklist to confirm that every task meets the established quality standards. They can break larger tasks into subtasks or sequence tasks in the programme to sharpen focus on the actions required.

5. Align QA & QC Protocols

The purpose of QC is to confirm that QA protocols are functioning effectively, so the two must be designed to support each other. For example, when a QC process checks the quality of kitchen cabinet installation, the Inspection and Test Plan (ITP) – covering aspects such as hinge alignment and door alignment – must align with the QA ITP check sheet.

6. Use QC Findings to Improve QA

The findings from quality control checks should feed back into QA methods, making them more effective at preventing future issues. Site teams must report QC issues to those responsible for QA on the relevant task – and the business as a whole must embrace this approach as a mindset.

For example, if the Clerk of Works or Quality Manager conducting kitchen cabinet QC checks identifies a trend of misaligned door installations, the QA Lead should review the task logged in the project management solution to establish whether the issue reflects a broader skill gap rather than an isolated incident. This insight should then reach the QA Lead for the task, prompting adjustments to QA protocols and, where necessary, additional training.

Construction businesses that embed all six of these quality assurance procedures significantly reduce the defects that reach the QC stage.

How Construction Software Supports Quality Assurance

Quality assurance in construction centres on process – the policies and procedures that contractors follow to minimise risks and maintain quality standards throughout a project. However, these processes cannot operate in isolation; they need support from modern construction software that integrates QA throughout the project life cycle.

Construction software enhances QA efforts in several key ways:

• Workforce Planning

  Ensuring that the right people with the necessary skills and experience are assigned to the appropriate jobs.

• Predictive Issue Management

  Identifying and addressing potential issues before they escalate into larger problems.

• Mobile-Accessible RAMS & Policies

  Embedding links to Risk Assessment Method Statements (RAMS) and policy documents in the project management platform so contractors can access them on site via mobile devices.

• Analytics & Reporting

  Using data insights to track contractor behaviour and monitor the success of QA initiatives, identifying areas for improvement.

• Site Productivity Monitoring

  Assessing whether QA processes are enhancing or impeding productivity, and making adjustments as necessary.

• QA-Integrated Quality Control Checks

  Facilitating QC checks that align with QA policies to ensure consistency and close collaboration between QA and QC teams.

• Photo Documentation & Digital Evidence

  Capturing timestamped photos to prove compliance before works are covered up, creating an unalterable digital record essential for the Golden Thread.

Together, these capabilities make construction software instrumental not only in driving QA processes but also in encouraging alignment between QA and QC teams, ensuring both quality and efficiency across all project stages.

By using software, we can not only identify and manage quality concerns on individual projects, but we can identify trends across the company. This helps make future decisions in regards to supply chain selection, internal skill shortages and programme management.

Emma De Francesco

Strategic Product Consultant

Procore

QA is Everyone’s Responsibility

Quality assurance is essential for effective project management in construction. A common assumption across many UK construction businesses – noted by quality management practitioners and reflected in GIRI's research into error culture – is that if a project has run smoothly in the past, detailed QA processes are unnecessary. In reality, QA is moreso about implementing procedures to prevent potential problems like material failures, safety incidents, and budget overruns.

By establishing comprehensive QA procedures and supporting them with quality-focused construction management software, businesses can mitigate many issues early. This proactive approach transforms quality control into a straightforward confirmation exercise, rather than a reactive measure deployed after problems have already occurred.

Written by

Emma De Francesco

Strategic Product Consultant | Procore

23 articles

Emma is currently Strategic Product Consultant at Procore where she loves partnering with clients to help them achieve the best possible results. She has worked as a Project Manager in previous roles, responsible for overseeing small to medium-sized projects across various sectors including commercial, health and lifestyle, retail, government and hotels. Throughout these projects, she managed everything from project costs, program and quality & safety, to design management, procurement, and authority approvals.

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Reviewed by

Nicholas Dunbar

Content Manager | Procore

65 articles

Nick Dunbar oversees the creation and management of UK and Ireland educational content at Procore. Previously, he worked as a sustainability writer at the Building Research Establishment and served as a sustainability consultant within the built environment sector. Nick holds degrees in industrial sustainability and environmental sciences and lives in Camden, London.

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Zoe Mullan

27 articles

Zoe Mullan is an experienced content writer and editor with a background in marketing and communications in the e-learning sector. Zoe holds an MA in English Literature and History from the University of Glasgow and a PGDip in Journalism from the University of Strathclyde and lives in Northern Ireland.

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