Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control

“To err is to human,” and sometimes the costs of making mistakes can be very high. There are innumerable instances in history when a minor employee flaw has caused companies a billion dollars. 

Software testing and quality assurance were established to ensure that the released software works as expected. To further conceptualize the idea of software quality, it is defined as “the degree of conformance to explicit or implicit requirements and expectations.

These comprise two basic levels of software quality that are:

• Functional- the compliance of the product with available and design specifications. This aspect focuses on features, performance, ease of use, and defects of the software quality.
• Non-functional- the inner architecture and characteristics of the software.

Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are frequently used interchangeably. Although they are closely related, are part of quality management, and can be difficult to distinguish, they are not the same. 

While QA is concerned with defect prevention, whereas QC is concerned with fault detection.

This blog will highlight some sharp differences between quality assurance and quality control that would help you define your journey forwards!

What is Quality Assurance?

Quality assurance is a process of producing software applications with fewer flaws and errors before they are deployed to end customers. Quality assurance is described as the action of ensuring that the approaches, strategies, procedures, and processes developed for the projects are appropriately executed. It detects flaws in the process. Quality Control comes after Quality Assurance.

What is Quality Control?

The Quality Control team ensures that the product meets the functional criteria. It is a “process through which a firm strives to guarantee that product quality is maintained or enhanced, and manufacturing faults are avoided or eliminated,” according to Investopedia.

This activity is conducted before the product’s release and applied to the completed product. In the industrial business, it is analogous to randomly selecting an item from an assembly line to determine if it meets technical specifications.

Quality Assurance Vs. Quality Control: Comparison Table

Now that you understand the concept of quality assurance vs. quality control. Here’s a quick comparison table for your detailed understanding;

What are the Goals of a Quality Management System?

Quality Assurance and Quality Control exist inside a Quality Management System (QMS), whose objective is to optimize the Quality of a project’s or product’s deliveries.

The framework of the Quality Management System is identified in a Quality Management Plan. It comprises the following sections:

• Quality Criteria

A list of the quality criteria applicable to the project/product. Most industries have well-developed standards from the project’s owner, or a bar can be obtained from a standards body such as ANSI, IEEE, or ASTM.

• Quality Control

It specifies what will be assessed, how frequently, and the acceptance/rejection criteria. This part should also include any inspection paperwork that is required. 

• Quality Assurance

It outlines the quality assurance efforts, which typically involve frequent quality audits of the different processes at predetermined intervals. It may also include reporting criteria for the quality system’s performance and future system upgrades. Because QA is a continuous improvement process, it is only sometimes feasible to identify every component of process improvement at the outset; nonetheless, establishing the groundwork can give the project team a head start.

Why is Quality Imperative for Success?

There is a common reason why developers avoid software testing because it takes time; however, this isn’t the case here. The quality and dependability of your product are ensured through software testing, although it may seem complicated at first.

QA To ensure top-notch quality, two specific approaches are used: quality assurance testing ensures that processes are followed for managing and creating deliverables, while quality control testing ensures that the approaches, techniques, methods, and procedures are followed in a way that ensures delivery of project deliverables meets the defined standards for quality.

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