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PRE-QAPP AGREEMENT (PQA) AND ANALYTICAL METHOD CHECKLISTS (AMCS): TOOLS FOR PLANNING RESEARCH PROJECTS
Citation:
Vega*, A, V. A. Lancaster, AND F. Weesner. PRE-QAPP AGREEMENT (PQA) AND ANALYTICAL METHOD CHECKLISTS (AMCS): TOOLS FOR PLANNING RESEARCH PROJECTS. Presented at 19th Annual National Conference on Managing Quality Systems for Environmental Programs, Albuquerque, NM, 4/3/2000.
Description:
The Land Remediation and Pollution Control Division (LRPCD) QA Manager strives to assist LRPCD researchers in developing functional planning documents for their research projects. As part of the planning process, several pieces of information are needed, including information regarding: how the data will be collected (e.g., the proposed experimental and sampling designs); how the samples will be analyzed (including the desired data quality); and how the data will be summarized and interpreted (e.g., the statistical methods proposed for data analysis). Because most researchers are not experts in all technical areas, it is necessary to provide tools, or guidance, that aid the researcher in generating functional planning documents.
Recently, LRPCD developed tools that can be used to improve the quality of planning documents in the areas of data analysis and analytical procedures. These tools include the Pre-QAPP Agreement (PQA) and severla Analytical Method Checklists (AMCs).
The Pre-QAPP Agreement is a modification to a previous NRMRL product referred to as the Project Objective Agreement (POA). In general, the PQA is the data quality objective (DQO) process for research projects. The PQA helps researchers define their project objectives by documenting how they will evaluate whether or not a project objective has been achieved. Researchers are guided to consider a descriptive or inferential data analysis approach. If the inferential approach is chosen, researchers are rtequested to specify the consequences of inferential decisions and how far the conclusions from the research project can be generalized.