Quality assurance and quality control are often used interchangeably. However, these concepts are unique components of the software development life cycle.
Quality assurance (QA) aims to prevent defects through systematic, planned activities like process standardization, improvement, and documentation. Quality control (QC) uses software testing and inspection to identify existing defects to ensure that the software meets the specified standards.
Quality is the backbone of the development process. Putting low-quality software in the hands of end users leads to numerous problems, including failing to meet customer requirements and damaging the brand’s reputation.
While these process-oriented activities differ, they work together to improve software. They also allow dev teams and project managers to implement effective strategies for managing quality throughout the SDLC.
Quality Control (QC): Definition and Overview
Quality control is the process of finding and correcting defects in otherwise completed products to meet the project’s required quality standards. Quality control activities are reactive and help you identify deviations from the pre-specified criteria or issues. QC aims to ensure that the software is as defect-free and usable as possible.
Key Features of QC
QC primarily focuses on ensuring that each product meets established standards and particular requirements at a product-specific level. As a reactive process, it is implemented after active development. This is one of the main differences between QC and QA.
To maintain high levels of quality post-development, this testing-centric methodology encompasses many different testing types, such as performance, usability, and functionality tests. These tests then help QC professionals identify inconsistencies, defects, and instances of non-compliance with quality standards. By taking a comprehensive approach, QC ensures a product’s reliability and integrity before consumers can access it.
Tools and Techniques in QC
QC professionals employ a variety of tools and techniques to test a product’s quality. Popular tools for tracking and reporting issues, like Bugzilla and JIRA, help better manage testing efforts by enabling testers to document, assign, and resolve issues more efficiently.
Testing categories include manual testing, which requires human involvement and is often highly detailed, and automated testing, which is aimed at improving speed and consistency and requires tests to be scripted. Regression testing, which is usually automated, ensures that new changes don’t adversely affect existing functionalities.
There’s also the option to choose from various QC testing methodologies, such as Six Sigma, Lean Production, and Total Quality Management. QC testers often combine these tools, techniques, and methodologies.
Benefits of QC
The overall goal of QC is to ensure software meets requirements, regulations, and quality standards before release. It benefits both businesses and consumers. It also boosts brand reputation, fostering trust and loyalty from customers.
Limitations of QC
There are some limitations to QC. The biggest constraint is that it can’t 100% guarantee that software is defect-free. Even after rigorous testing and inspection processes, some defects remain undetected due to a variety of factors.
Additionally, QC can be time-consuming and costly, with significant resource requirements. In some cases, this impacts project timelines and budgets.
Quality Assurance (QA): Definition and Overview
The main goal of quality assurance activities is to ensure the maintenance of quality throughout the development process. This involves preventing defects from the beginning of the development life cycle. It emphasizes quality maintenance throughout development.
Through regular audits, process evaluations, and development best practices, the QA process helps ensure the final product meets the quality standards without requiring corrective measures after development is complete.
Key Features of QA
By focusing on planning, defining, and refining processes, QA helps prevent defects before they affect the final product instead of reactively identifying issues after development.
Successful QA involves regular training sessions for team members, comprehensive process documentation, and aiming to improve processes continuously. By embedding quality in each part of the development process, QA facilitates the consistent delivery of high-quality products and enhances consumer trust while reducing the likelihood of post-development defects.
Tools and Techniques in QA
To make the QA process more efficient, QA professionals employ a variety of tools and techniques to maintain software excellence, quality, and reliability.
TestRail, for example, makes managing and tracking test cases easier and more effective. Selenium, a well-known name in the testing world, helps QA teams automate their testing for quality.
Creating a successful QA strategy involves utilizing various techniques. Standards definition establishes clear criteria for quality, while process design enhances the efficiency of overall operations. Process audits assess the adherence of a product to quality standards. Used together, these tools and techniques help QA teams preemptively identify and fix defects.
Benefits of QA
QA plays an important role in software development, ensuring that the software meets high standards. This reduces the need for costly corrections post-development while also streamlining the overall development cycle.
Through its proactive nature, QA allows dev teams to correct issues earlier in the process. Businesses decrease their time to market and save on costs through more efficient resource allocation. Users enjoy more reliable software, which helps increase trust and satisfaction.
Limitations of QA
QA is an indispensable part of the development process. However, it isn’t without limitations.
Establishing QA standards and processes requires a significant upfront investment in terms of resources, time, and training. Some view QA as overly process-heavy and bureaucratic, saying it could stifle creativity while slowing down the dev cycle.
Although QA aims to prevent defects, it doesn’t eliminate the need for QC. QC allows teams to identify and fix any defects missed by QA processes. Using the two processes together is the best way to ensure that a final product meets all necessary standards and has as few defects as possible.
Quality Management: The Overarching Framework
Quality management (QM) is a combination of QA and QC. This approach helps enhance both product and service quality at a company-wide level. Embedding quality in organizational culture, QM helps teams align quality processes, policies, and objectives with the organization’s goals and direction, all while enforcing adherence to quality standards.
Relationship of QM with QC and QA
A more holistic approach to achieving high standards in quality, QM unifies the practices and principles of QA and QC into a unified approach. It also encourages the standardization and improvement of processes.
Although QA and QC are their own distinct processes, they’re interconnected and equally important aspects of an effective QM framework. Together, they incorporate quality into the development process from the beginning and foster a philosophy of continuous improvement.
Key Elements of Quality Management
QM has four main components. Together, they provide a blueprint for achieving quality.
- Quality planning focuses on setting quality goals and allocating the required resources and processes for achieving them.
- Quality assurance ensures that established processes are sufficient to meet quality standards.
- Quality control involves inspecting final products against quality criteria for any defects.
- Quality improvement is a continuous effort to improve services, products, and processes based on the feedback and evaluation of the overarching QM process.
Why QM in Software Development? Benefits & Challenges
QM not only improves customer satisfaction and process efficiency but also plays a pivotal role in reducing waste while ensuring consistency.
Adhering to QM helps organizations across industries develop a systematic approach to ensuring quality by encompassing both QA and QC. It also leads to more robust quality systems, improved risk management, and a culture of continuous improvement. Additionally, it helps businesses achieve compliance with industry standards related to quality.
One of the biggest strengths of a QM framework is its ability to address common challenges like change management, balancing standardization and flexibility, and resource allocation. QM helps organizations adapt to change while meeting quality standards. It also nurtures a culture of quality at every organizational level.
Through a more comprehensive view of quality within the industry, businesses can build more robust and efficient software.
Quality Control vs. Quality Assurance: A Comparison
Although they’re different processes, QA and QC both aim to help businesses produce high-quality software that meets industry standards.
QA takes a proactive approach to quality with the goal of preventing defects beforehand through systematic processes and standards. QC, the Yin to QA’s Yang, focuses on a reactive approach by detecting defects post-development through careful inspection and testing. Used separately, these processes are somewhat effective. However, when used together, QA and QC contribute to a more robust, quality-oriented culture.
Conclusion
Quality assurance and quality control are both important processes in ensuring product quality. By leveraging them together, they help contribute to better products in a variety of industries. Leveraging both processes via a quality management approach gives businesses a reliable means of ensuring quality throughout development.
FAQs
What is the main objective of quality control?
The primary objective of quality control is to detect and correct defects in a finished product. The process is used across industries.
Why is quality assurance considered proactive?
Quality assurance is considered proactive because it consists of processes that are carried out to prevent defects from taking place.
Can organizations rely solely on QC or QA?
QA and QC each have their own purposes and benefits. While it’s possible to just rely on one or the other, businesses typically achieve more comprehensive coverage when they used them together.
Are QC and QA only applicable to software development?
No, QA and QC aren’t specific to software development. These processes are applicable to a wide range of industries, helping them improve product, process, and service quality.
Are statistical process control (SPC) and statistical quality control (SQC) used in software development?
While SPC and SQC are traditionally associated with manufacturing and production, the concepts behind these processes are often applied to software development to help ensure quality. SPC can be adapted to monitor different aspects of the SDLC, including code quality and defect rates. SQC can be applied to inspect and assess the quality of the final software.
