Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control vs. Testing

To make sure that the software product or application that is being built has the right quality for delivery purposes, the platform of quality assurance, quality control and software testing can be applied strategically. All these three platforms can be used to enhance the overall quality of the software product or application. In this article, you will get to know the differences between Quality assurance, Quality control and software testing.    

What is Quality Assurance (QA)? 

It is a set of activities and methods to check whether the software product or application is getting developed in accordance with specifications and requirements. Its objective is to assess the functionality and quality of the software before it is released and ensure that the best possible user experience is provided by the final product. 

QA is a planned strategy applied in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process that details the evaluation and testing processes to obtain high product quality. QA is a top-level strategy that is used to identify and eliminate errors and bugs in the software product or application. Management-related areas like project management and analysis, issue resolution, development methodologies etc., are established by the QA platform. 

Organizations can also outsource qa testing based on budgets and considerations for obtaining optimal results. If companies outsource QA testing to expert QA providers, then productive outcomes can be expected.   

What is Quality Control (QC)? 

The level of software product readiness is strategically checked through the Quality Control method. QC is an integral part of QA methodology. The actual results of the development are examined before release. The developed results are compared with the requirements mentioned in the original documentation. 

The state of the source code needs to be evaluated and thus compared to architectural documentation, programming standards, security requirements etc. The team must also strive to understand the strategic differences between qa vs. qc, so that once the QA and QC team knows the key differences between qa vs. qc, then they will be able to optimize quality in a better manner. 

What is Software testing? 

It is a structured and phased testing process that plays a crucial role in verifying the software for bugs and errors. It is also focused on improving the functionality, scalability, performance, robustness and user experience of a software product or application. Some of the software testing types are unit testing, integration testing, regression testing, system testing, compatibility testing, performance testing, usability testing,  user experience testing etc.  

Following are the differences between Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control vs. Software testing: