Quality concepts
Specifications
Also called: specs, project specifications
Specifications are the written requirements for the project: what products and materials are acceptable, how they are to be installed, what standards apply and how the work will be tested and accepted. Where the drawings show size, location and geometry, the specs carry the qualitative and procedural requirements the drawings cannot. Together with the drawings they form the core of what an inspection checks against — the spec is often where the real acceptance criterion lives.
Why it matters
Most 'is this the right product?' and 'is this installed correctly?' questions are answered in the specs, not the drawings. A submittal is reviewed against the spec section; a workmanship or testing requirement usually comes straight out of it.
They also name the standard families that govern the work. When a spec section points to a code or industry standard, that is what the inspection and the acceptance criteria inherit — so reading the spec is how you learn what the work actually has to satisfy.
How it shows up on site
Checklist items and submittal reviews written to specific spec sections, with the acceptance criterion — a test, a tolerance, a finish level, an applicable standard — pulled from the specification rather than assumed.
Standards it's verified against
Checklists that put specifications to work
Free, field-ready checklists, each with the photo every item needs before it can be submitted.
Related terms
- Contract documentsThe full set of drawings, specifications and agreements that define what has to be built and to what standard — the requirement everything is checked against.
- SubmittalThe product data, shop drawings or samples a contractor sends for review to confirm what will be installed matches the spec before it's ordered.
- Acceptance criteriaThe stated, measurable conditions installed work has to meet before it can pass — the yardstick an inspection judges against.
- ConformanceThe state of installed work actually meeting the drawings, spec and approved submittal — the opposite of a nonconformance.
- Quality assurance (QA)The planned system of procedures, plans and checkpoints set up before work starts so the right result is built the first time.
- Quality control (QC)The hands-on inspection and testing of installed work against the spec — checking the actual product, not the process that made it.
Knowing the term is step one. Proving it is the job.
RTI holds the submit button until every mandatory item is answered and the photos are attached, then chains the record so it can be proven untouched later.