Quality Management Tools - Quality Management Plans
A Quality Management Plan documents how an organization will plan, implement, and assess the effectiveness of its quality assurance and quality control operations. Specifically, it describes how an organization structures its quality system, the quality policies and procedures, areas of application, and roles, responsibilities, and authorities. The elements of a quality system are documented in a Quality Management Plan. Both EPA organizations and organizations performing data collection activities funded by EPA are required to document their quality systems.The Quality Management Plan is an organization or program-specific document; it describes the general practices of an organization or program. Project-specific details of individual projects of the organization or program are documented in a Quality Assurance Project Plan (see QA Project Plans). Thus, the Quality Management Plan may be viewed as the "umbrella" document under which individual projects are conducted.
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References
- Frequently Asked Questions on Quality Management
Plans
- EPA
Quality Manual for Environmental Programs EPA CIO
2105-P-01-0 (PDF
62pp, 169K). Chapter
3 contains specifications for EPA organizations.
- EPA Requirements for Quality Management
Plans (QA/R-2) (PDF 30pp, 86K) -
March 2001 (Reissued May 2006), EPA/240/B-01/002. Reissue
Notice (PDF
2pp, 91K). Contains specifications for organizations that receive
funding from EPA (equivalent to those in EPA Manual 2105-P-01-0).
- Guidance for Developing Quality
Systems for Environmental Programs (G-1) (PDF
114pp, 569K) - November 2002, EPA/240/B-02/008. Guidance on developing and
documenting the elements of a functional quality system in organizations
that carry out environmental data operations within, or on behalf of,
EPA.
- EPA Checklist for Reviewing Quality
Management Plans (MS Word, 13pp, 134K),
Version 2, September 2001. Checklist for reviewing EPA Quality Management
Plans submitted to the Quality Staff for Agency approval. This checklist
was developed solely for the Quality Staff to use in reviewing Agency
QMPs. However, it may be used to review QMPs submitted to your organization.
If so, you will need to remove any requirements specific to EPA and
tailor the checklist to emphasize those elements important to your
organization and the proposed work.
- Quality Management Plan Briefing. This 1-hour briefing contains presentation materials and a factsheet and can be used to inform managers about EPA's policies for Quality Management Plans.
Training
- Introduction to Quality Management Plans. This half-day course describes the EPA policies and specifications of Quality Management Plans. It presents information that must be addressed in a Quality Management Plan that satisfies EPA policy.
Examples and Other On-line Resources
- EPA National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory
(NHEERL)
Available on the EPA Intranet at www.nheerl.epa.gov/policy_guidance/qa/pdf/qmpfinal.pdf
- EPA Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards
www.epa.gov/oar/oaqps/qa/index.html#doc
- EPA Region 4
www.epa.gov/region4/sesd/oqa/r4qmp.html
- EPA Region 7
www.epa.gov/region07/qa/qa_r7_qmp.pdf (PDF 81pp, 702K)
- Intergovernmental Data Quality Task Force - Uniform Federal Policy
for Implementing Environmental Quality Systems
www.epa.gov/swerffrr/documents/data_quality/ufp_sep00_sec1.htm