Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

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Quality Assurance is process oriented and focuses on defect prevention; while quality control is product oriented and focuses on defect identification.

Comparison chart

Improve this chart	Quality Assurance	Quality Control
Focus on:	QA aims to prevent defects with a focus on the process used to make the product. It is a proactive quality process.	QC aims to identify defects in the finished product. Quality control, therefore, is a reactive process.
Goal:	The goal of QA is to improve development and test processes so that defects do not arise when the product is being developed.	The goal of QC is to identify defects after a product is developed and before it's released.
Statistical Techniques:	Statistical Tools & Techniques can be applied in both QA & QC. When they are applied to processes (process inputs & operational parameters), they are called Statistical Process Control (SPC); & it becomes the part of QA.	When statistical tools & techniques are applied to finished products (process outputs), they are called as Statistical Quality Control (SQC) & comes under QC.

Contents 1 Differences between Quality Assurance and Quality Control 1.1 Definitions of QA and QC 2 Video explaining the differences 3 See Also 4 References

edit Differences between Quality Assurance and Quality Control

edit Definitions of QA and QC

• • Quality Assurance (QA) refers to the process used to create the deliverables, and can be performed by a manager, client, or even a third-party reviewer. Examples of quality assurance include process checklists, project audits and methodology and standards development.
  • Quality Control (QC) refers to quality related activities associated with the creation of project deliverables. Quality control is used to verify that deliverables are of acceptable quality and that they are complete and correct. Examples of quality control activities include inspection, deliverable peer reviews and the testing process.
• Quality control is about adherence to requirements. Quality assurance is generic and does not concern the specific requirements of the product being developed.
• Quality assurance activities are determined before production work begins and these activities are performed while the product is being developed. In contrast, Quality control activities are performed after the product is developed.

edit Video explaining the differences

edit See Also

• Financial Accounting vs Management Accounting
• Marketing vs Sales
• Depreciation vs Amortization

edit References

• http://blog.teamgrowth.net/index.php/quality-assurance-testing/what-are-the-differences-between-quality-assurance-software-testing-quality-control

Comments: Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

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Anonymous comments

good info............

115.✗.✗.177 on 2013-05-13 07:15:28

QA is the think tank while QC is the doer

122.✗.✗.91 on 2012-06-26 05:24:43

thank you for the clear information :)

202.✗.✗.195 on 2012-02-08 02:21:28

That sounds really good...!

116.✗.✗.57 on 2011-11-13 18:19:14