Inspection and Test Plan: How to Create an ITP and Use It

Inspection and test plans (ITPs) have been used for military construction and their manufacturing process for years, but they are becoming increasingly popular for all types of construction for several reasons. They sometimes refer to different checklists for every inspection point or set the standard for your projects within the construction industry in general.

Inspection and Test Plans (ITP) for Construction

1. What is an ITP?
2. Why use an ITP?
3. What Is Included in an ITP?
4. How Do You Create an ITP?
5. How Software Can Enhance an ITP?

What is an ITP?

An ITP (Inspection test plan) is an inspection checklist of required inspections. It lists your task inspections and provides and easy to follow plan to improve quality assurance. It's a plan that lists what tests and inspections should be performed throughout each phase of a project.

As a major component of an overall project quality control plan, it’s important to understand what an ITP is, the reasons to use one, and how to get the most from it in your own projects, as you'll need a solid inspection process and to fulfil your inspection criteria to ensure no issues are present before declaring the project as completed.

Check out FTQ360's Inspection Plans (ITP):

Why Use an ITP?

If you're not using this valuable tool, there are several reasons to consider adding ITPs to your quality management program even if your contract does not require them for quality control purposes.

Some of the inspection types and methods it can be used for include visual inspection, pH testing and many others.

Starting with an ITP plan makes it clear to people on the project what they're supposed to do. It also shows clients what they can expect during each phase of work. As the project progresses, the ITP shows you which tests and inspections have been completed and which ones are still to come. Considering adding an ITP when working on your quality inspection plan, might have a great ROI if effectively used.

Using an ITP as part of your quality management process helps hold people accountable for doing the necessary inspections. In many cases, an inspection can’t be completed later if it was missed. An ITP helps avoid this potential problem and ensures that your quality assurance plan stays on track.

What Is Included in an ITP?

An ITP includes all of the required inspections and tests for a project, typically with fields for:

• Inspection and test when required

• Test or inspection required

• Frequency of tests or inspections

• Required inspector types

• Party responsible for the work being inspected

• Inspection completion dates

• Notes and comments

• Hold points where approval must be given before work can proceed

In many cases, the relevant section of the specifications is also included for easy reference. Each line item is a distinct feature of work that has been identified before the project starts.

How Do You Create an ITP?

If you have never done it before, creating an ITP can feel like an impossible task. How can you possibly develop every test and inspection that has to be done on a project?

The good news is that based on your inspection process criteria, you don’t have to define all of the details of every ITP checklist. You just have to create an outline to follow based on the contract, specifications, and construction schedule.

Start with a close review of the specs, but don’t stop there. Look at the construction schedule and identify tasks that should be inspected as features of work. Next, review your contracts with subs to establish the features of work that must be inspected prior to processing payments.

Finally, identify the major milestones when critical inspections must be completed. These are typically at the end of a phase or prior to other work getting covered up.   

For longer projects, you don’t have to develop a complete ITP at the beginning. Instead, you can create an ITP for each phase. Starting with an ITP plan template also helps remove the barrier because you just have to customize it for each project.  

An ITP will help you meet the requirements of your projects, which is the ultimate goal of any quality management system.

How Software Can Enhance an ITP?

Although it’s possible to create an ITP using paper forms, modern technology has made it much easier to outline the plan, link it to the relevant documentation, and track progress and help you on your control measures.

Using software to manage your ITPs allows you to see valuable information immediately, such as:

• Tests and inspections that have been completed  

• Those that have been started but not yet completed

• Inspections that are coming up

• Percent complete of the entire ITP

Software also allows you to have all of the documents at your fingertips, so if you want to review an inspection checklist that has already been completed, you just have to click and you can see who the inspector was, when it was completed, scores on individual checklist items, and any associated notes.

You can also set up dependencies and alerts to ensure that no inspections are missed and easily create reports for clients who want to see ITP progress and the percent complete.

Whether you have to create an ITP to win a contract with a new client or you simply want to employ quality management best practices on all of your jobs, using inspection and test plans will only help you improve quality and reach the acceptance criteria, whether it is in your first inspection or final inspection.

Starting with an ITP plan template and using software to gather data and track progress is the most efficient way to use this valuable tool. If you’d like to learn more about how FTQ360 can help you start using ITPs for your projects, get in touch today.