Quality Assurance QA vs Quality Control QC: Top 5 Differences

In Codica, our quality assurance engineers and testers actively use these methods during and after the software development. In this article, you can learn more about QA and QC, how they differ, and how to use them for your business. We already know the risks that can arise when QA specialists are too detached from the product quality. However, when QC teams only focus on short-term goals without paying attention to processes, they also risk stagnation.

In contrast, quality control is the product’s actual review during production to ensure it is created to the highest standards. While quality assurance occurs during the entire process, from planning to maintenance of a product or project, quality control happens during the inspection phase. Quality control activities entail the use of inspection and testing processes for detecting and shelving nonconforming products. The quality control function exists within operations and manufacturing and uses the standards set by QA as the basis for inspecting and testing products. In this way, quality control professionals are like the police who enforce the laws established by legislators and ensure they are appropriately followed. It is a managerial tool includes planned and systematic activities and documentation to prevent problems related to quality.

Differences between Quality Assurance and Quality Control

They can join the project early on (like in DevOps), or once most of the codebase is ready. The timing depends on the project’s software development methodology. Quality Control starts at the later development stages once there are ready pieces of functionality.

QC is reactive and exists to identify defects in the quality of products after they have happened. Your organization can achieve Quality Assurance (QA) by putting into practice a Quality Management System (QMS). This system will help with the prevention of quality issues in all departments of the firm. Another way of looking at Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) would be to recognize what type of tools those are. For example, you can perceive QA as a managerial tool for preventing various quality issues.

Quality assurance versus quality control: additional differences

Rutgers has a course geared toward working in the health care industry, Quality Improvement in Healthcare Organizations. You can also get started on your MBA through degree programs on Coursera. The responsibility of quality assurance is not of any specific team, but it is a responsibility of each member of the development team.

For example, the QA process documents standard operating procedures (SOPs) according to ISO standards (ISO 9000, and ISO 13485). Therefore, QA is involved during the initial phase of software development, and QC is involved during the execution stage. They are a systematic, independent, documented https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ review and evaluation of an organization’s quality management system. Process audit, product audit, and system audit are the three main types of quality audits. For over 8+ years, our experienced QA team has used the top software testing tools and practices to build high-quality web products.

Similarities between quality assurance and quality control

Quality Control is a reactive approach, focused on finding already existing defects rather than preventing them. This is done through product testing, checkpoint review, codebase analysis, and practical use cases. So, QA’s priority is to increase the team’s productivity, prevent issues, and optimize the processes. Quality assurance is process-oriented; however, Quality control is product oriented. QA is focused on taking actions to create a good quality product, and QC is focused on resulting in a quality assured product.

• A website quality assurance service keeps your site in good condition at all times, which means you create better user acceptance testing (UAT).
• In fact, QA is more process-oriented, while QC is focused on the product currently being developed.
• Often serious errors on the site are discovered during the QA testing and can be fixed immediately.
• QA is focused on taking actions to create a good quality product, and QC is focused on resulting in a quality assured product.
• QC is a core subset within the larger QA plan that focuses on evaluating, inspecting, and auditing your lab’s practices.
• In a previous article, we described how traditional quality control often fails to integrate with the rest of the production process.

Also, QC experts provide compliance with the product’s predetermined quality criteria as a whole. Also, QA experts work to avoid errors before they occur and provide comprehensive information about the status of your product at all stages. Ultimately, the quality assurance engineers check the product for usability and compliance with established standards. Quality Assurance is popularly known as QA Testing, is defined as an activity to ensure that an organization is providing the best possible product or service to customers. Once QA is done with the first interaction of optimization, they communicate the insights to QC. This cyclic system is the right approach for combining quality assurance and control – both teams should communicate and exchange insights all the time.

Quality Control vs. Quality Assurance: What’s the Difference?

Ultimately, it is the key to producing high-quality products for customers around the world. If you’re ready to pursue a career in quality assurance and quality control, you can start your journey to your quality management job. Quality Control also known as QC is a sequence of tasks to ensure the quality of software by identifying defects and correction of defects in the developed software. It is a reactive process, and the main purpose of this process is to correct all types of defects before releasing the software.

Many companies are still using the Product-Out methodology, which focuses on rigid standards that are ignorant of the shifting market. Depending on what sort of product you make, you might have individual SLAs (service-level agreements) for each customer that describe the acceptable parameters for quality. Companies that make B2C (business-to-customer) products might have internal quality standards that are intended to provide the best value to retailers. After that, it should plan the corrective actions which are to be undertaken to ensure the quality in the product. Then the facts are collected and reported to the management of the company which takes remedial actions for improving the quality of the product. The QA process features the definition of standards for each production step—from design, manufacturing, assembling, packaging, storage, and distribution, to marketing and sales.

What is Quality Assurance: SQA Methodologies and Definition

Moreover, our specialists customized seamless bundling with Trello to simplify the time-tracking process. So, Trello’s tickets with attributes and statuses serve as a description of logged hours. It’s cheaper to do a website QA and fix Quality assurance vs. Quality control a bug immediately than to find it after it costs you money. And after that, you will still have to spend money on its correction. Often serious errors on the site are discovered during the QA testing and can be fixed immediately.

Whether we are talking about quality assurance during the site development stage or after launch, it is a guarantee that there will be no mistakes. With QA, you can be sure that you will end up with a website that works perfectly. The main advantage of QA is structuring the process of creating and testing software. For example, the QA expert knows when to start the testing process and what specific plan to follow. It is a good idea to analyze the main advantages of quality control vs quality assurance deeply. As a result, both QA and QC help to deliver a high-quality product to the customer.

Other types of Testing

The customers will be happier creating better products, and the organization will be more satisfied with their work. Another essential concept in quality management is lean management, a system of techniques that aims to eliminate all non-value-adding activities and waste from a business. As both QA and QC intend to reduce or eliminate waste, knowledge of Lean manufacturing would improve your skills.