Building a Quality Dashboard: Start with the Forms

Quality control is often labeled as the responsibility of the project manager—but when it comes to reporting, the weight naturally shifts to the project controller. That’s why quality dashboards should be developed with both collaboration and data structure in mind.

And the foundation of any reliable quality dashboard? The forms.

All the key quality documents—transmittals, inspection requests (IRs), RFIs, non-conformance reports (NCRs), material inspection requests (MIRs), and more—are more than just paperwork. They are your raw database. These documents capture the daily rhythm of site inspections, approvals, rejections, and clarifications. When collected and organized properly, they become the backbone of your reporting system.

With some simple math and smart data mapping, you can extract a wide range of useful indices. These indicators don’t just show activity—they reflect patterns and trends. For example, an increase in closed NCRs over time might suggest that quality issues are being resolved faster, while a high number of pending MIRs could point to bottlenecks in material approvals.

While there are many ways to approach quality tracking, this method—starting from official forms and converting them into structured data—is one of the most direct and transparent. It aligns with real project workflows and uses the documents already being generated on a daily basis.

In short, you don’t need to invent a new system. You already have the data. What you need is the structure, and a dashboard that brings it all together.

Because quality reporting is not just about compliance—it’s about insight. And a well-built dashboard can help everyone on the team see exactly where things stand.