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NASA
Procedural
Requirements

NPR 8735.2C
Effective Date: March 12, 2021
Expiration Date: March 12, 2026

COMPLIANCE IS MANDATORY FOR NASA EMPLOYEES

Subject: Hardware Quality Assurance Program Requirements for Programs and Projects (Updated w/Change 2)

Responsible Office: Office of Safety and Mission Assurance

Chapter 7. Government Contract Administration - Quality Functions

7.1 Overview of Contract Administration Quality Functions

7.1.1 The FAR and NFS establish the processes used by NASA within the context of contract administration. The scope of these processes is broad and includes financial, program management, logistics, and QA functions. This section provides requirements and guidance for implementing the QA functions that lie within contract administration. Aspects of GCQA that are fully addressed in Chapter 4 through Chapter 6 are not duplicated herein.

7.1.2 The requirements in this chapter cannot be flowed down to non-governmental project offices or to prime contractors (for additional information, see Government Contract Quality Assurance, 48 CFR § 46.4).

7.1.3 The FAR and NFS establish the QA activities that are executed by programs and projects acquiring critical items. These activities include:

a. Ensuring quality control and assurance requirements are adequately specified on contracts.

b. Ensuring that the contract provides means for GCQA where evaluation at the point of Government acceptance is inadequate for establishing conformance with technical specifications and requirements (i.e., assuring conformance of complex items or processes).

c. Ensuring that the contract provides means for the Government acquirer to execute QA processes associated with Government acceptance of an item from the supplier.

7.2 Performing Contract Administration Quality Functions

7.2.1 GCQA tasks are those performed by a representative of the Government project office (i.e., second party) that evaluate a supplier's likelihood to achieve compliance with technical specifications, quality control requirements, and other QA requirements or that verify that compliance was achieved. GCQA precedes product acceptance (for additional information, 48 CFR § 46.104). Acceptance is the act of agreeing through signature that the item meets the acceptance criteria signifying transfer of ownership of the item to the Government and the associated owner liability.

7.2.2 For assuring conformance to specifications and requirements for product and process attributes determined to be critical for the safety of crew and operations personnel for human- rated vehicles and missions, the Project Manager shall:

a. Account for the conformance of each product and process attribute determined to be critical for crew safety in certification of flight readiness reviews (COFR) for human-rated missions.

b. Assign and execute GMIPs, or acceptable alternatives to GMIPs (e.g., documented and SMA TA-endorsed sampling plan or surveillance plan) as determined by a documented risk assessment, that produce objective evidence of the second party verification, that is traceable to the product or process and the attribute (e.g., work order Government sign-off, status report, database entry of completion date, and acceptable result).

c. Produce and maintain records that describe when verification of more than one attribute, or more than one instance of an attribute, is traceable to a single GMIP record (i.e., when sampling is used).

d. Produce and retain risk assessments to support uses of sampling plans as described in c. above.

e. Coordinate the execution of the QASP with the personnel who will perform the GCQA work and with the supplier where the CGQA work will be performed.

Note 1: GCQA work has the potential to drive up the value of the contract and, thus, the CO may need to be included in GCQA planning.

Note 2: GCQA is performed by or under the direction of a civil servant (for additional information, see Government Contract Quality Assurance, General, 48 CFR § 46.401.(e)).

f. Ensure that GCQA is performed by project representatives who are either NASA contractors who are under contract to NASA in a manner that makes them independent of the item supplier and under the direction of NASA; are NASA civil servants; or are civil servants in another Federal agency. Projects determine, based on strategic and risk management objectives, how they will staff for GCQA and Government acceptance tasks (i.e., internally or externally).

7.2.3 The Project Manager may determine if and which previously existing documentation, data, or records are considered acceptable for satisfying GCQA objectives (e.g., audit and assessment data found in the NASA SCIS database; qualification data acquired by another project; procedures produced by the supplier for another customer).

7.2.4 The Project Manager shall ensure that acceptance of a product on behalf of the Government (i.e., product acceptance) is performed only by a civil servant.

7.2.5 For additional information, see DD Form 250 for recording Government acceptance (NFS 1846.6, Material Inspection and Receiving Reports).

7.2.6 The Project Manager shall provide personnel who are assigned GCQA tasks the following minimum information, instructions, and processes:

a. The locations where the work is to be performed.

b. Technical and programmatic information including:

(1) A surveillance plan or subset thereof that is relevant to the point in the project life cycle, the subject supplier, the hardware, and the processes.

(2) A schedule for accomplishing the tasks and key associated milestones.

(3) Quality control and assurance requirements including applicable technical standards.

(4) Technical specifications (i.e., form, fit, and function specification limits).

(5) Previously approved requirement waivers.

(6) Previously acquired supplier or product quality data that should be reused to satisfy GCQA objectives or that indicates known risks.

(7) Requirements flowed to the supplier for reporting anomalous test results.

c. Mechanism for recording and reporting the following minimum data resulting from GCQA activities:

(1) Completion of tasks.

(2) Results of the work including nonconformances and significant observations.

d. Mechanisms for delivering the GCQA records for storage with project records, for storage with the supplier's production records, and for recording the tasks and results on the shipping or receiving paperwork (for additional information, see 48 CFR § 46.401.f). Also, see DD Form 1149, Requisition and Invoice/Shipping Document.

e. Mechanisms for elevating quality concerns to the project's risk management system.

f. Mechanism for recommending changes to the requirements that add technical or programmatic value.

g. Mechanism for rapidly reporting defects and nonconformances to both the supplier and to the project and for receipt of project decisions relative to acceptance of nonconforming product.

h. Mechanism for recording and managing the risks associated with the consequences of missed GCQA work defined by the surveillance plan.

7.2.7 The Project Manager shall require that skipped GMIPs are subject to project risk review.

7.3 Delegation of Government Contract Quality Assurance (GCQA) Functions to Non-NASA Federal Agencies

7.3.1 Non-NASA Federal agencies may be delegated authority to perform GCQA functions on a reimbursable, in-kind, or non-reimbursable basis as formally agreed to in an agency-to-agency memorandum of understanding (MOU). See Chapter 8 for uses of Statements of Work (SOW) (i.e., Letter of Delegation(LODs)) to communicate the nature of the delegated work and the minimum information required by 7.2.6 above.

Note: The DCMA is an example of an agency that performs delegated GCQA functions on NASA's behalf. See Chapter 9 for requirements specific to delegations to the DCMA.