{"slug":"/consulting/ndt-bridging-documents","title":"NDT Bridging Documents: Contractor and Client Requirements","description":"Bridging documents and matrices that reconcile a contractor's written practice and procedures with a client's certification scheme, specs or code edition.","h1":"Bridging your NDT programme to a client who works to different rules","answer":"An NDT bridging document reconciles a contractor's written practice and procedures with a client's requirements where the two differ: another certification scheme, a client specification, or a different code edition. It lists each client requirement, shows where the contractor's documents meet it, records each gap and its resolution, and is signed by both parties before work starts.","expansion":"Two NDT programmes can each be compliant and still disagree. The contractor certifies its people under an employer-based written practice to ASNT SNT-TC-1A; the operator's specification asks for certification under a central scheme built on ISO 9712, such as PCN, or CAN/CGSB-48.9712 in Canada. The client adds a practical examination on its own specimens, a stricter vision requirement or its own report format. The construction code on the contract references an edition of ASME Section V older or newer than the one the contractor's procedures were written to. A bridging document puts each difference on one line and records how it is closed. It cannot convert one certification into another: an SNT-TC-1A certification does not become an ISO 9712 certification by appearing in a matrix. Atlantis prepares the matrix and its supporting evidence and reviews it with an ASNT NDT Level III, and is candid about what a matrix cannot do.","source":"ISO 9712 (qualification and certification of NDT personnel); CAN/CGSB-48.9712; ASNT SNT-TC-1A (2024, with Addendum); ANSI/ASNT CP-189 (2024); ASME BPVC Section V, Article 1; client specifications invoked by contract.","table":{"caption":"Columns of a bridging matrix, with one client requirement worked through","columns":["Matrix column","What goes in it","Worked example","Who completes it"],"rows":[["Client requirement","Quoted text with document number, revision and clause","Personnel to hold central-scheme certification or an equivalent the company accepts","Contractor quality staff, from the contract documents"],["Contractor provision","The written practice or procedure paragraph that addresses the same subject","Written practice certification clause: employer-based certification to SNT-TC-1A","Contractor Level III"],["Status","Met, met with supplement, or not met","Not met as written","Contractor Level III, checked by the client reviewer"],["Resolution","The action that closes the gap, or the client's written acceptance","Client accepts employer certification for the named scope, supported by a witnessed practical demonstration on client specimens","Agreed between client and contractor"],["Evidence","Documents that prove the resolution","Personnel list, certification records, and a demonstration record signed by the client's witness","Contractor quality staff"],["Approval","Names, roles, signatures and dates for both parties","Client technical authority; contractor Level III and quality manager","Both parties"]],"note":"A matrix in which every row reads met deserves a second look; the value of a bridging document sits in the rows that needed a supplement or a decision."},"facets":[{"q":"What is an NDT bridging document?","a":"A controlled document that sets a client's NDT requirements beside a contractor's written practice and procedures, line by line, and records how every difference is resolved. Both parties sign it and it becomes part of the contract quality documentation, so technicians, inspectors and auditors work from one agreed position rather than from two programmes that quietly disagree."},{"q":"Can a bridging document make SNT-TC-1A certification equivalent to ISO 9712?","a":"No. ISO 9712 certification is issued by a certification body after examination under that scheme; SNT-TC-1A certification is issued by the employer under its written practice. A bridging document can record that the client accepts employer certification for a defined scope, with supplementary evidence, but it cannot create a certification the person does not hold."},{"q":"Who approves an NDT bridging document?","a":"Both sides. On the client side, the technical authority for NDT or the quality function named in the contract; on the contractor side, the Level III and the quality manager. Each signature should carry a role and a date, and the document should name the contract and the revisions of each party's documents it reconciles."},{"q":"When is a bridging document better than revising our procedures?","a":"When the difference belongs to one client or one contract, and changing your general documents would impose that client's rules on everyone else. If the same difference recurs across clients, revise the general documents instead. If the difference is technical and specific to one job, a [project-specific procedure](/consulting/project-specific-ndt-procedures) is often the cleaner answer."},{"q":"How are differences between code editions bridged?","a":"By comparing the edition your procedures were written to with the edition the contract invokes, paragraph by paragraph for the methods in scope, and listing every change that affects technique, calibration, coverage, acceptance or records. Each change is then marked as already met, met by a project supplement, or carried into a procedure revision before work starts."},{"q":"Does a bridging document replace the client's audit of our programme?","a":"No. It records an agreed position on requirements; it does not verify that your programme works. Clients frequently audit against the bridging document itself, sampling the evidence it cites. Write it expecting that, and cite only evidence you can produce on the day."}],"sections":[{"heading":"Why two compliant programmes still collide","paragraphs":["A contractor's NDT programme is built around its written practice, its procedures and the codes it usually works to. An operator's is built around its assets, its history and its corporate specifications. Each can be internally consistent and fully compliant with what it claims, and the two can still disagree on certification, examinations, vision, procedures, reporting and records. Contracts rarely resolve these differences on their own; they reference both sets of documents and leave the conflict to surface on site.","A bridging document surfaces it in the office instead. The idea is familiar from safety management, where a bridging document sets out how an operator's and a contractor's management systems interface on one site. The NDT version applies the same discipline to technical and quality requirements: list every difference, decide every difference, and sign the decision before mobilization."]},{"heading":"Certification scheme differences","paragraphs":["The hardest differences are between certification schemes. Under SNT-TC-1A and CP-189 the employer certifies its own personnel against its written practice. Under ISO 9712 and the schemes built on it, such as PCN in the United Kingdom and CAN/CGSB-48.9712 in Canada, an independent certification body certifies the individual after examination under that scheme's rules. When an operator's specification names a central scheme and the contractor's people hold employer-based certification, no amount of paperwork makes the two the same.","What a bridging document can do is record the options and the decision. The client may accept employer-based certification for a defined scope, sometimes with supplementary evidence such as a practical demonstration on the client's specimens, witnessed by the client. The contractor may assign personnel who already hold the scheme the client names. Or the scope may be split between them. Atlantis does not certify personnel under ISO 9712, PCN, CSWIP or CAN/CGSB schemes and does not train for them; our role is to set out the comparison and the evidence honestly."]},{"heading":"Client requirements that go beyond the written practice","paragraphs":["Many differences are additions rather than conflicts. A client may require a practical examination on its own specimens before a technician works on its assets, vision tests on a stricter schedule, more experience in a technique than the written practice requires, named approval of each technician, or its own report format and terminology. Each addition goes on the matrix beside the contractor's provision, which is frequently silent, and the supplement that meets it.","Some additions sit comfortably in a client-specific supplement. Others would be simpler to adopt generally, because several clients ask for the same thing. The bridging exercise is a good moment to see that pattern: a requirement that turns up on bridging document after bridging document probably belongs in the written practice. Tracking that over time keeps the general documents current and the bridging documents short."]},{"heading":"Code edition gaps","paragraphs":["Code editions create quieter differences. A contractor's procedures are written to the edition of ASME Section V current when they were last revised; the construction code on a contract references a specific edition, which can be older or newer. Personnel requirements can differ too, because a code can reference a particular edition of SNT-TC-1A while the contractor's written practice has moved to the one ASNT currently publishes, the 2024 edition with its Addendum.","Bridging an edition gap means comparing the two editions for the methods in scope and listing the paragraphs that differ in a way that affects the work: technique, calibration, coverage, acceptance, records or personnel. Each difference is marked as already met, met by a project supplement or requiring a procedure revision before work. Changes that only renumber paragraphs still need noting, because reports and procedures cite paragraph numbers and a reviewer will check them."]},{"heading":"Building the matrix","paragraphs":["The matrix starts with the client's documents, not the contractor's. Every clause of the client specification that touches NDT personnel, procedures, equipment, examination, reporting or records becomes a row, quoted rather than paraphrased so nobody argues later about what it said. The contractor's provision is then found for each row, with the document, revision and paragraph cited. Rows where the contractor's documents are silent matter as much as rows where they conflict.","Status and resolution come next, and they are where a Level III earns their place in the exercise. Deciding whether a provision genuinely meets a requirement, and whether a proposed supplement closes the gap, are technical judgments. The resolution column should say who must act, what evidence will prove it and whether the client must accept it in writing. A matrix that only states what is different, without resolving it, is a list of problems rather than a bridging document."]},{"heading":"Approval, control and the life of a bridging document","paragraphs":["Once agreed, the bridging document is signed by both parties and issued under document control, normally the contractor's, with the client holding a controlled copy. It names the contract, the client documents and revisions it bridges, and the contractor documents and revisions it relies on. Any later revision on either side triggers a review of the affected rows, which is why a register linking the bridging document to the documents it cites is worth keeping.","During the job, the bridging document is a working tool. Technicians and supervisors should be briefed on the rows that change how they work, and those briefings recorded. Inspectors and auditors test it by sampling: picking a row, asking for the evidence cited and checking it is current. At close-out, rows that caused trouble are worth reviewing before the next contract with the same client, so the next bridging document starts from experience."]},{"heading":"What Atlantis delivers on bridging documents","paragraphs":["We read the client's specifications alongside your written practice and procedures, build the matrix, draft the supplements that close gaps, and list the decisions the client must make in writing. Technical judgments in the status and resolution columns are reviewed by an ASNT NDT Level III. For certification-scheme rows, we set out the options and the evidence each requires; the decision rests with the client, and certification under any scheme rests with whoever issues it.","Bridging documents are most useful early, before a mobilization date fixes everyone's positions. [Request a quote for a bridging document](/contact?service=consulting&subject=Bridging%20document) and send the client specification with your written practice; we will tell you how many rows look like real gaps before you commit to anything."]}],"faq":[{"q":"Is an NDT bridging document the same as an HSE bridging document?","a":"They share an idea but cover different ground. An HSE bridging document sets out how two organisations' safety management systems interface on a site. An NDT bridging document reconciles technical and quality requirements for examinations. On some contracts they are combined; where they are separate, each should reference the other."},{"q":"Can you bridge to a certification scheme you do not certify under?","a":"Yes. Comparing documents does not require being a certification body for either scheme. We set out what the client's scheme requires, what your programme provides and what evidence would support any acceptance the client chooses to give. We make no claim that one scheme's certification satisfies the other."},{"q":"How long does a bridging document stay valid?","a":"For the contract and the document revisions it names. A revision on either side, a contract extension with new scope or a change in the code edition invoked means reviewing the affected rows, and the review should be recorded even when nothing changes."},{"q":"Do we need a bridging document for every client?","a":"Only where a client's requirements differ from your programme in ways that matter to the work. For repeat clients, a standing bridging document reviewed at each new contract saves rebuilding it, and rows that never change are candidates for your general documents."}]}