What is Difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Management?

It is very important that an organization agrees on the meanings of Quality Assurance and Quality Management. These two terms form a very integral part of the quality strategic management plan of the organization.

The efficiency of delivery teams depends on the differences being well comprehended by all stakeholders and bodies involved since the effective quality system goes a long way in contributing to the success of any project. The two concepts QA and QM are closely related. However, they are two different terms.

Here, we will be taking a look at some of the difference between quality assurance and quality management.

Quality Assurance (QA) is the function of the product quality which guarantees that the processes, standards, as well as procedures, are suitable for the project and are properly implemented. On the other hand, Quality Management (QM) is the practice of developing plans which determine the standards that need to be applied to the project.

QA provides confidence that quality requirements will be satisfied, QM determines whether the project is compliant with the quality specifications specified in the quality management plan.

Quality Assurance is a pro-active means. It helps to identify weaknesses in the processes of development of a product. However, quality management is all-encompassing. It consists of laying down standards that define the project quality metrics and the benchmark.

Quality Assurance is process oriented, and it does not involve the execution of the product. It identifies weakness in the products and helps to improve the quality. Quality management is all about analyzing the process and eliminating any problem or variable that might result in an incorrect product.

Furthermore, unlike quality assurance which basically focuses on the process of quality, quality management takes the lower level details into consideration. Quality management helps to determine the approach through which the output of the project is to be tracked and measured.

In conclusion, quality management provides all the needed quality assurance. It is the planning and initial implementation aspect, while quality assurance helps in identifying any weakness in the process, thus, improving upon them.