Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

August 19, 2019

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The terms Quality assurance (QA) and Quality control (QC) are associated with the quality of the software product to be developed or under-development.

QA is all about maintaining the quality of the processes involved in the development of the software product whereas QC involves the activities which works towards the achievement of quality prospect in the software product.

Let's go through some of the notable points which distinguish Quality Assurance from Quality Control.

Quality Assurance	Quality Control
1. Quality assurance is responsible for the quality of the processes or procedures involved in the software development.	1. Quality Control is accountable for the software product's quality.
2. The chief goal behind Quality Assurance is to check and maintain the standards of the development process in order to achieve the maximum quality.	2. The primary purpose of the Quality Control is to provide remedy to the bug affected software, to attain the high level of the quality before its market release.
3. QA is a process oriented job.	3. QC is a product oriented process.
4. It encompasses the whole process of the software development until the development of the final product.	4. It usually involves the testing phase.
5. Quality Assurance carried out prior and during the development process.	5. QC starts as soon as the software product or its component or module gets developed.
6. QA may be considered as a preventive measure.	6. whereas QC is the corrective action to resolve the issues associated with software product.
7. It involves the participation of all the teams, working towards the software development such as business team, designing team, development team, etc.	7.QC requires a specific and dedicated team, usually testing team to work towards the achievement of quality in the finally developed software product.
8. The methodology of QA consists of examination of the documentation part of the development process which may include strategies, plans, resources required, etc.	8.It comprises of physical evaluation of the software product.
9. The activities to carry out QA process may include strategy defining, outlining of the standard process along with its implementation, training professionals, audit, etc.	9. QC task mainly comprises of testing activities and reviews.
10. Quality Assurance is followed by the Quality Control.	10. Quality Control is preceded by the Quality Assurance.
11.Verification process is a good example of QA.	11.Validation process is covered under QC.

You may also like to visit and read our related article Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control Vs Testing.