Overview

Let’s learn about Quality Assurance in this tutorial. Quality Assurance makes sure you are doing the right things the right way.

Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance is a set of umbrella activities designed to ensure that the development and/or maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives.

Many people and organizations are confused about the difference between quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and testing. They are closely related, but they are different concepts. Since all three are necessary to manage the risks of developing and maintaining software effectively, testers and managers must understand the differences.

Quality Control: A set of activities to evaluate a developed work product.
Testing: The process of executing a system with the intention of finding defects.

QA activities

QA activities ensure that the process is defined and appropriate. Methodology and standards development are examples of QA activities. A QA review would focus on the process elements of a project – e.g., are requirements being defined at the proper level of detail. In contrast, QC activities focus on finding defects in specific deliverables, e.g., whether the defined requirements are the right requirements. Testing is one example of a QC activity, but there are others, such as inspections. Both QA and QC activities are generally required for successful software development.