In this article, we are going to share with you the difference between quality assurance and quality control. We will find that if QA and QC are separate processes and discuss the risks of carrying out QA and QC entirely independently. So follow us until the end of this article to find the answers to your questions.
What is quality?
Quality is a measure of excellence or a state of being free from defects, deficiencies, and significant variations brought about by the strict and consistent adherence to measurable and verifiable standards to achieve uniformity of output that satisfies specific customer or user requirements.
What is quality assurance?
Quality assurance or QA is a proactive approach. It aims at preventing issues before they are detected in the product.
What is quality control?
Quality control or QC is a reactive approach. It focuses on the end product, its functionality, interface, and performance.
What are the distinctions between QA and QC?
1.Scope:
QA focuses on primary production. For us, it means the code itself must be clean and developed properly. QC takes into account secondary factors as well, such as hardware differences, browsers, API compatibility, etc. You can see their comparison in the following table.
|
QC |
QA |
| Product Oriented | Process Oriented |
| Reactive Approach | Proactive Approach |
| Line Function | Staff Function |
| Find Defects | Prevent Defects |
2.Methodology:
Quality assurance methodology analyzes the development process, defines product requirements and user expectations. QC team operates with a set of criteria and metrics created by the QA.
Quality managers usually prefer QA over QC, considering this work more creative. But we think that dirty tasks like refactoring, cleaning out tech debt, and fishing out bugs are exciting.
3.Timing and Duration:
At AminSoft, QA starts at the beginning of the process at the planning stage, while QC starts at the later development stages once there are ready pieces of functionality.
QA is a long-term continuous process that is oriented at improving the team. QC lasts less as long as the team has a product to work on.
4.Goals:
QA goals are long-term. They include:
- Predictability: to minimize the number of unexpected issues.
- Efficiency: to improve the development and testing speed.
- User-driven approach: to deliver products that derive from user needs.
- Flexibility: to build practices that fit any project.
QC goals are product-driven. They include:
- Reaching deliverables.
- Making sure that the product works on different devices.
- Checking compliance with the QA requirements.
- Documenting all the processes.
Validating user experience and testing functionality.
5.Measurement & Statistics:
AminSoft‘s QA team uses check sheets, control start, Pareto chart, stratifications, and diagrams to measure the efficiency of the testing and development process. QC teams use statistical quality control techniques to measure the quality of the end product.
Conclusion
Although QA and QC are independent units, we cannot split these two processes. At AminSoft, QA and QC cooperate in a cycle. Once QA is done with the first interaction of optimization, they communicate the insights to QC. Then QC comes back to the product, and the cycle continues.
Did you know that in software development, it’s common to bring QA and QC experts from an expert outsourcing team? Remote audits, consultations, and cooperation allow cutting organizational costs. We provide software development, UI/UX design, QA, and testing services. If you need experts’ help, do not hesitate and contact us.