Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance (QA) is a systematic process of determining whether the products meet or exceed customer expectations. It is a way of preventing mistakes and defects in manufactured products and avoiding problems when delivering solutions or services to customers. QA is applied to physical products in pre-production to verify what will be made meets specifications and requirements, and during manufacturing production runs by validating lot samples meet specified quality controls. QA is also applied to software development to verify that features and functionality meet business objectives, and that code is relatively bug free prior to shipping or releasing new software products and versions.

History

The term Quality Assurance originated in the manufacturing sector, but its principles have been applied to various industries including software development, education, and healthcare. The roots of QA date back to the inspection model of quality control, which was first implemented during World War II.

Principles

The key principles of Quality Assurance include fit for purpose (the product should be suitable for the intended purpose), right first time (mistakes should be eliminated), and ownership (everyone takes responsibility for their own work).

Process

The Quality Assurance process typically includes the following steps: defining how employees’ job performances will affect the quality of the product, identifying and setting quality standards, determining how to measure these standards, and taking corrective action when necessary.

Quality Assurance in Software Development

In software development, QA practices are designed to ensure that the quality of the product meets or exceeds customer expectations. This is achieved through processes such as requirements definition, software design, coding, source code control, code reviews, software configuration management, testing, release management, and product integration.

See Also

• Quality Control
• Software Testing
• Software Development Process
• Software Quality

References

Quality Assurance Resources
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