That's certainly one approach - but it may not be optimal.
Here are a few little exercises that I used to give graphic design students to spark discussion and thinking on these kinds of questions.
The task/work is to draw this barn in Illustrator. The wall is 1" high. The width is 2".
A good class would come up with about 17 ways to draw the barn in Illustrator.
Some questions that this exercise might prompt:
1) Was there only one right way and 16 wrong ways to do the work?
2) Were all 17 ways the right way?
3) Were some ways more right than others?
4) How do you determine whether the drawing of barn is correct or not?
5) Was the information provided sufficient to complete the task?
6) Was the information provided unambiguous?
7) Did the information provided enable you to determine the correctness of the work that you did?
Next task:
The task/work is to draw this same barn in Illustrator. But this time each student would only be permitted to draw one element of the graphic and would then have to pass it on to the next student would would be tasked with drawing only one element and then passing it on etc.
Some questions that this exercise might prompt:
1) Is it possible that each part of the barn be drawn correctly - but the final barn be incorrectly drawn?
2) How does the work done by some one upstream from you affect your ability to do your work correctly?
3) How many people down the the barn drawing production chain are affected by the work done previously?
4) Is the drawing of the barn done more or less correctly if there is a meeting of the students to discuss the barn drawing project prior to starting the actual work.?
5) Is the drawing of the barn done more or less correctly if each student is allowed to speak about their part of the drawing before passing it on to the next student in the production chain.
My point is that quality control is much more than just a way to point the finger at the person that makes a mistake.
best, gordon p
