Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

Quality Control and Quality Assurance are two components of quality management. Quality management is the approach adopted by an organization to achieve and sustain long-term excellence and success. It is the steps taken in managing activities and implementation of quality policies, which are determined through means such as quality assurance and quality control.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control are two terms that have different meanings due to the multifarious definitions that are being given to them. Quality Assurance known for short as QA can be defined as the quality production steps implemented by an organization to provide assurance that the development process of a product is sufficient to meet its objectives. On the other hand, Quality Control also known as QC is a set of operational techniques implemented to ensure that the product produced conforms to the right standards defined by the organization.

What is Quality Assurance?

Quality Assurance is a proactive management practice used to ensure that quality standards are met or exceeded.

Quality Assurance is process- oriented. An organization justifies and assures that the manufacturing processes required for a product is carefully planned and under full supervision. Quality Assurance is a reflection of the Industry/Company Quality .

Quality Assurance in Software

According to The ISO, in software, quality assurance refers to:

“The function of software quality that assures that the standards, processes, and procedures are appropriate for the project and are correctly implemented.”

What is Quality Control?

Quality Control is a reactive method by which quality is gauged and consistently monitored.

Quality Control is product -oriented. A company justifies that the final product which is manufactured or produced is replica of the desired product and fulfill all the needs by Quality control. Quality control assures that the product works as specified in the designing and documentation stage. Quality Control ensures the product’s quality.

Quality Control in Software

According to The ISO, in software, quality control refers to:

“The function of software quality that checks that the project follows its standards, processes, and procedures, and that the project produces the required internal and external (deliverable) products.”

Differences between Quality Assurance and Control (QA vs. QC)

There are key differences between these components of Quality Management. They include:

Focus:

Quality Assurance (QA) is proactive as it involves a planned process that identifies if the product meets the required criteria for a product during the production stage. The quality level is enhanced if it deviates from the requirements. Quality Control (QC) detects the defects in a product after its development through testing. After the anomalies have been detected, the product is then contemplated on whether to reject it or accept it.
Quality Assurance focuses on the development process while Quality Control lays emphasis on the product standards.

Goal:

Quality Assurance safeguards the product from defects during the development stage while Quality Control identifies and sorts out the defects in the product to be fixed.
Quality Assurance is a preventive measure while Quality Control is a corrective approach.
The staff involved in the product production are responsible for the Quality Assurance while a testing team is responsible for Quality Control of a product.

Example:

Verification is an example of Quality Assurance
Validation/Software Testing is an example of Quality Control

Quality Assurance and Quality Control:

If we look at the role of Quality Control department in a manufacturing organization, the prime aim of the Quality Control team is to search for defects in the product. If they find anything that is not in compliance with the production standards or client requirement, they need to report the issue to the quality assurance team. Then it’s the job of quality assurance team to check the processes that have been followed by the production team during product development process. Once the faulty process is fixed, then the resultant product produced will again be sent to the quality control team for quality check. If the quality control team still finds defects in the product then the process is repeated until a satisfactory product is produced.

Both Quality Assurance and Quality Control Are Components of Quality Management

If we look at the service sector, mostly Quality Control and Quality Assurance teams remain in the same department. For instance, in the medical laboratory, the Quality Control team and Quality Assurance team work in close tandem to provide error free results.

Conclusion:

In this article, we’ve analyzed the big difference between quality assurance vs quality control. Quality assurance is the implementation of standardized procedures whereas quality control is following those procedures and techniques to assure the deliverable is of required quality.

The processes of quality assurance, quality planning, quality control and quality improvement make up the bigger process of Quality Management. We have also discussed various tools and techniques used for establishing quality assurance and quality control.

Despite their many meanings, the key differences between Quality Assurance and Quality Control is that QA is prevention and QC is cure.