Quality Assurance (QA)

Too often we call quality assurance just “testing” or “quality control”, where both traditionally have been performed under the umbrella of Quality Assurance (QA). QA, a planned process/activity, tailored to the program/project, is about ensuring compliance with standards, regulations, plans, and requirements, prevention, and trend and problem analysis for corrective action. This is the reason QA is required from the beginning of the project (Initiation) to review standards and other contractual requirements before the product/system requirements.

In the book Software/Firmware Configuration Management, I stated that Software Quality Assurance, as one of the best practice processes, is the process/discipline/activity that ensures “…contract and specification compliance. SQA ensures quality through a planned and documented program/process to:

1. Review and audit plans, activities, processes and specifications and technically related documents (format and content).
2. Monitor, witness, or conduct and certify tests.
3. Certify software (products), firmware and database systems.” (includes Quality Control and Validation and Testing activities)

(Can be applied to any product/system developed or produced)

QA is a planned program of verification and validation that is executed throughout the life cycle of the product and system. Verification is the review/evaluation of a process or processes, activities, and the documentation resulting from each phase/process, to ensure adherence to standard(s), regulations, and requirements identified and used as input to the phase/process. Validation takes places when a project’s product/system (including for software, a functionally complete unit/module or component) is developed/produced and available for review/examination, inspection or testing. The activity is Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) when performed by an outside organization.

I was taught that quality assurance as the discipline/activity performed by an organization or individual(s), other than the developer, that results in/ensures that the quality for the product is built into the product and certified (a process that provides objective evidence that an item satisfies its specified requirements).