If you don’t really know the difference between Quality Control And Quality Assurance, you’re probably under the assumption that they’re the same thing.
Quality Control And Quality Assurance
When looking at these concepts from different viewpoints, we can see that these are quite similar processes, but at the same time, they are sufficiently different.
However, it should be obvious that they perform at entirely different levels. Assurance implies an action that aims to prevent as many manufacturing missteps as possible.
Now, what about control? It is a phase of production when almost-ready products are getting tested for compliance with standards. It’s being done in order to find malfunctions.
Thus, these processes allow the manufacturer to prevent defects before a product even gets released. As it currently stands, both of these terms are often used together as one complex operation or interchangeably, completing each other.
Back To Basics
To make our way through these terms and not that make it painful (since it’s full of complex scientific things) let’s draw some parallels.
Let’s imagine that we’re back at school. We can compare these QA and QC with noisy kids and patient teachers. Kids (in this case, they produce content and make certain that certain features are up to standards) do their homework and submit it for grading. In this instance, the teacher acts as a controller. If everything is done to the teacher’s specifications, then the student gets a top grade. If not… well, the quality assurance process hasn’t worked as intended.
The Technical Side Of Things
QA and QC both consist of pretty complex operations and steps. Precise assurance can prevent a big number of mistakes in the product. Naturally, it is much cheaper than recalling an already shipped product. Defective products have no business being on the market, anyway.
Another interesting detail stems from the fact that the person in charge of assurance doesn’t need to possess specific skills.
For example, before a new computer game is released, it can be tested by people who have no programming or IT-skills. They just play the game and express their opinions on what they like, what they don’t like and what should be changed.
QA and QC are important in every area and structure – content creation, science, and even writing. You can’t let your writing be mediocre, especially if you’re a student. Thankfully, the writing team at https://customwriting.com is fit to tackle your assignments.
QA and QC in the game with IT rules
Such a clever word as “assurance” or a daunting one as “control” are commonly used in a variety of other fields. But you really shouldn’t confuse those two definitions in science, production and IT.
“Quality” stands for adherence to requirements and features found in a product. Every product fills a particular segment and has specific requirements. Standards differ from a product to product, and you can’t compare them on a constant basis. It’s like comparing cars with trains. Trains can’t function on highways, and streets and cars can’t (reliably) function on railroads.
Quality management was conceived as a part of a business effort a few decades ago. It was introduced as a way to keep the quality of products on a sufficient level since the middle of the 20th century. It is a set of organizational schemes, methods, complex operations and important resources for the overall condition of the product.
SQA
In software development, a set of attributes known as SQA (software QA) gets all development processes under strict control. It maintains the quality of production operations and keeps customers satisfied as a result.
But when we speak about SQA, we need to get back to assurance and quality. Quality management is a multi-step process; assurance, as we see, is the first step, while control is the following one.
QA and its “Routine”
Assurance is a process that strongly impacts the final product. Development and design of software, coding itself, configuration management, release control, and integration are key ingredients of quality assurance. Under normal circumstances, these processes work sequentially – one by one. It’s like cooking a cake. You can’t just throw in sugar, dough and the rest of ingredients into the oven and cook before mixing.
Finding weakest links in the chain is the best way to avoid making the same mistakes in the future. This is what assurance is about.
Being a quality assurance technician in the development industry is something that requires highly-specialized skills. Getting a head start as a quality assurance tester is a clever way to gain experience in this field.
Quality Control Checklist
Quality control is the final stage of the entire process. It is an operation in which the arsenal of brain-breaking tools or a gang of serious-looking experts is used to review the quality of products or a variety of production factors. We are approaching the “finish line” stage of our interesting tour!
The checkup of software involves two master activities – testing and review. The first one works with:
- Units
- Integration
- Systems
- Acceptance
The reviews are for:
- Requirements and concepts
- Codes and designs
- Deployment
- Testing plans and cases
The primary intention of control is about maintaining the product within the limits of standards (requirements, needs or specifications). It is necessary to remember that quality control relates to quality assurance.
