Quality Control Plan: How to achieve consistent quality across all projects
When the business is small, everyone knows how things are done. Quality is in people's heads. It works until someone new starts, projects multiply, and suddenly department A does it one way and
section B on another.
«We want to structure things. Just become less dependent on individuals,» a client explained. They had grown, and quality varied from project to project.
A quality control plan solves it. It takes the process out of people's heads and into the system.
What is a quality control plan?
A quality control plan is a structured overview of all steps to be carried out in a process. Each step has a responsible person, a status and a timeline. When a step is completed, it is documented.
automatically with who did it and when.
A quality control plan forkortes ofte QCP (Quality Control Plan). You will also hear it referred to as a quality checklist. In Business Online, we use QCP as the common term.
This means you not only know what needs to be done. You can prove that it was done.
For businesses working to ISO 9001 or those with clients who require documentation, there's a difference between passing an audit and stressing your way through it.
More than a checklist
A checklist tells you what to do. A quality control plan documents that you actually did it.
The difference sounds small. It is not. A checklist can be ticked off without anyone knowing who did it, when it was done, or if it was done correctly. A quality control plan logs everything. Each
Status changes are registered with name and date.
«Do you have traceability? A timestamp, can you go back and see?» a customer asked during a meeting. With a quality control plan, the answer is always yes.
«We trust people to do the right thing»
It is the most common quality strategy in growing companies. It works right up until it doesn't.
A contracting company described what they needed: «The overall management that ensures you get it right the first time. That you avoid making mistakes and that you are guided a bit more through the process.»
At another company, the pattern was familiar: «People read a procedure during onboarding, and then do it their own way afterwards.» The procedure existed. Nobody followed it. The quality control plan was a Word document that nobody
Opened after the first week.
People aren't careless. The process just lives in a document instead of in the daily workflow.
How the quality control plan works in Business Online
In Business Online, the quality control plan is built into the workspace. Not a separate system alongside, but part of the project you are already working on.
At the top of the workspace, you see the phases as coloured circles. Green means completed. Blue means in progress. Grey means not relevant. Red means deviation. You can see the project's status at a glance.
Clicking on a phase opens the checkpoints. Each checkpoint has a description, a responsible person, and a status. When you mark a checkpoint as complete, it is recorded with your name and the time. Comments can
is added to document what was done.
Relevant documents are linked directly to each checkpoint. You don't need to search through folders. The template you need is where you need it.
The quality control plan follows the project from start to finish. And it follows the same structure in all projects. A project manager who opens a project they haven't worked on before knows exactly where things stand.
How Lie Blikk removed bottlenecks with quality control plans
Lie Blikk obtained three ISO certifications simultaneously with the implementation of Business Online. The quality control plans were what held the system together.
When something goes wrong, you know where to
Sometimes things don't go according to plan. A checkpoint is not completed, or it is completed incorrectly. Then it is marked as a deviation. Red in the quality control plan.
This means you don't need to search. You can see which phase, which checkpoint, and who was responsible. The reason can be documented directly in the checkpoint.
For businesses with ISO certification, this is gold. An auditor doesn't just ask if you're doing things right. They ask what you do when something goes wrong. With a quality control plan, you have the answer.
«The QCP is the biggest advantage we have gained»
Lie Blikk is a plumbing company that grew from 60 to over 100 employees. They introduced Business Online and simultaneously obtained three ISO certifications.
«The greatest value is what goes on the quality control plan,» says Eirik Kvilstad Heskja, Head of Digitalisation and Finance. «It's the key to being able to implement projects using the same methodology with
a system, like practice and less room for error.»
«We are craftsmen and skilled in our trade, but we don't want to have to be particularly IT-savvy. We need a system that makes it easy to work in the same way.»
A quality control plan should not make everyday life more complicated. It should make quality something that happens when people do their jobs.
QCP follows the entire business, not just projects
In Business Online, the quality control plan is not limited to projects. It follows the sales process in CRM, the onboarding of new employees in HR, and quality work in KHMS.
This means that a new employee follows the same quality control plan as everyone else from day one. No shadow arrangements. No «ask Kari». The process is the reference point.
Quality should not be left to chance
In a small business, quality is personal. Everyone knows the standard because everyone knows each other. As the business grows, quality must live in the system, not in the heads of individuals.
A quality control plan enables growth without quality varying from project to project. That's what your customers notice.
See how the quality system in Business Online works
We'll show you how to use quality control plans in Business Online's modules. 30 minutes, no obligation.