Quality Control Database

Our online quality control management system (QCMS) is a sophisticated web based application using cutting edge technologies to provide an easy to use reliable solution for recording quality control testing results. QCMS was developed with the primary goal of providing a central access point for both field staff and clients to record and view the quality control testing results.

The vision of the project is to provide a long term storage area in which the clients are able to log in to the system to view the test results for a specific section of a road which was tested four years ago and receive the information in seconds.

Highway Technical Engineering Services LP (HTES) partnered with Pure Logic Solutions Inc. to develop this innovative application that has not yet been developed for this specific industry. Overall the QCMS is a value added project for the clients of HTES to insure a fluid steam of information gathered by the quality control testing.

The system has many advanced features, however we will be going over only a few key features in this report.

 

Central Storage & Real-time Data

 

QCMS offers a data storage solution that brings all the testing data together in one location which can be accessed globally in real-time by key personnel and clients. The system is able to store information for an unlimited amount of projects and insure proper user access throughout the system.

One key advantage is providing the ability for contractors / owners of the project to keep a close eye on the project without having to physically visit the locations. They are able to retrieve real-time data to determine that the tests are being conducted in an acceptable frequency.

Prior to the QCMS, all the test results were filed and stored in one or two physical locations, which made reviewing the documents at a later time very difficult. This made it difficult to find a specific test result from 2 years ago on a specific location of the road.

 

 

 

 

Intelligent Searching

QCMS has solved this issue by implementing an easy to use searching feature built into the system. The system is able to search all the test results by various factors including station location range, date, and type of test conducted.

If the client wants to find the test results for a specific station on the road taken 15 years ago, it is as easy as selecting the station range and/or the date range along with the type of test they are looking for and the system will return all the tests that match their criteria within seconds.

This is a very powerful tool for long term maintenance contracts that are present in some of the project today. There is now an easy way to retrieve test results for various tests based on a specific location.

 

 

 

Security and Approvals

The QCMS system has sophisticated security features in place which allows for complete flexibility of the users access on the system. The security is broken down by project then by task as well as overall functions of the system.

To insure proper change management control over the test results the system is also equipped with the tools to enforce the change management rules. For example each test is entered in by the field staff after they have recorded the hand written results from the field, the test result is then set as “Pending Approval” until a manager in the department, who has the proper security level, approves the test result. Once the test result is approved the result is available to the client. If any changes are made after the test has been approved it is set back to “Pending Approval” because there was a change, once again the manager with proper access must approve the test result changes before the changes are finalized and available to the client. The system is also able to revert back to any previous version of the test result if incorrect changes have been made. This process insures that all changes are approved by a manager before being available to the client.

Audit Trail

One of the key objectives of the QCMS system is to keep a record of all the changes and that are made to each test result. The goal was to never delete any records, this way the system can keep an audit trail of all the changes made to a test result.

To accomplish this we created the audit trail for each record in the system. Any change that is made to a record generates a new version of the record and saves the changes to the new version. All the old information is still kept intact and linked to the new record through the audit trail.

The audit trail keeps track of who made the change and when. This provides the ability to revert back to previous versions of a record if something was changed incorrectly.

 

 

Ease of Use and Reports

QCMS was developed with ease of use and reporting in mind. Each of the test results has been reviewed and the reporting page carefully designed with the end user in mind. Each result can be viewed with all the details available along with the quality control checklist and the audit trail. Each page can also be exported to PDF for printing and emailing. Below is an example of a test result.

 

 

 

Technologies Used

 

QCMS uses the latest in Microsoft technologies to fully maximize security, efficiency, and productivity. The core of QCMS runs on ASP.NET 3.5, which opens the door for a rich Web 2.0 experience. QCMS features many AJAX enhancements including client validation, calendar and form popups, dynamic inputs and state management. These key features guarantee data integrity within the application, and overall enhance the user experience.

With ASP.NET, QCMS takes advantage of role security, and event validation. These security features ensures that the client can only return data sent from the server, and that unauthorized users are properly authenticated for certain areas of the application. With a dynamic application design, QCMS can easily have new additions added quickly and reliably without interrupting the rest of the application.

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 is the backbone of QCMS. The database contains over 70,000 records across 70 tables. To ensure integrity, the data is secured with over 200 constraints. Each record is safely handled within a transaction, ensuring that even in the most unlikely event, data is properly handled both in and out. With dynamic database architecture, the QCMS database is very flexible; ensuring that the future is easily open to new additions and features.

Finally all this runs smoothly on Windows Server 2003. Microsoft IIS makes the application and data available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week from anywhere in the world. Microsoft IIS also ensures that everyone is working with the “same copy” of the application at all times.

 

In conjunction with Microsoft, QCMS also features the open source Javascript library jQuery. jQuery is responsible for the rich Web 2.0 user experience.

 

Conclusion

The QCMS is an innovative project headed by HTES to increase their use of technology to add value to their relationships with their clients. The combined expertise of HTES and Pure Logic Solutions was critical in developing this sophisticated application to simplify the complex process of quality management reporting.