Quality insight: product quality certification post COVID-19 using systems framework from academic program accreditation

This paper is presented as a quality-insight column designed to motivate additional research and development of quality certification programs post-COVID-19 pandemic The framework presented follows the pattern and templates from typical academic accreditation programs in engineering and technology Ideas for quality expectations, assessment, rubrics, and outcome statements are presented in the paper The premise of this paper is to draw out the similarity of academic program accreditation to the process of quality certification and to encourage further research in developing repeatable frameworks for preparation for quality certification in engineering and technology, post COVID-19 pandemic The particular motivation for the methodology of this paper is the need to explore new approaches to quality certification in an era following the pandemic The work environment is, most likely, changed forever due to the pandemic As such, new approaches are desirable, which is what this paper presents