5 Important Points to Differentiate Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Software Testing

Most IT beginners often get confused when it comes to make out the differences among Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Software Testing. Although they are interrelated to one another and can be considered as same testing activities, but there exist distinguishing points set them apart. In order to work on the various testing tools, one needs to understand every basic concept of them. Here are five vital points on the comparison between QA, QC and Testing.

• Working

Quality Assurance: QA follows up the activities that ensure the implementation of standards and procedures in context to verification of a working application and related planned requirements.

Quality Control: QC follows up the activities that ensure the verification of a working application with respect to documented requirements.

Software Testing: As far as software testing is concerned, it carries that activities that simply ensure the identification of defects/errors/bugs in an application.

• Focus

Quality Assurance: The focus of a QA always remain on the processes of checking the working scenario of software rather then conducting actual testing on it.

Quality Control: The main focus of QC is on the actual testing by executing the software system with an objective to locate any bugs or errors in it through the process of implementation.

Software Testing: The work of a software tester is focused on the actual testing of an application.

• Activities

Quality Assurance: It has process-oriented activities for ensuring the quality of a developed application.

Quality Control: It has completely product-oriented activities for making sure that a product is of superior quality.

Software Testing: Software testing consists of product-oriented activities for making a software system bug-free.

• Process

Quality Assurance: The QA process carry preventive activities in its working.

Quality Control: QC holds the corrective process in implementing the activities for checking the quality of a software.

Software Testing: A tester use the preventive process in testing the software.

• Subset

Quality Assurance: QA is a subset of Software Test Life Cycle.

Quality Control: QC can be considered as a subset of Quality Assurance.

Software Testing: Software Testing is the subset of Quality Control.

So, one should never get puzzled in working various tools related to QA, QC and Software Testing as there are very minor but critical differences among them. Every concept should be clear in order to perform the development, quality and testing process of an application.

The Author's Take

The writer is an experienced IT professional who share the knowledge on software testing and related fields with the students, corporates and other readers through both online and offline mediums. He works in a leading QA software testing training institute.