In 2012, the Knight Capital Group, an American financial service firm, was the largest trader in the U.S. Through its Electronic Trading Group, Knight Capital traded more than $21 billion daily. However, this changed in August of 2012 when this leading financial service firm suffered from a loss of $440 million and went bankrupt. What does this have to do with quality assurance vs quality control? Their loss wasn’t random. It was because they skipped the quality assurance and testing process in a hurry. That hurry damaged their firm forever.
Want to learn how to save your business from the same loss and damage? Keep on reading our blog. Here, we’ve explained the key differences, benefits, and best practices to understand quality assurance vs quality control. So, let’s see what they are and why they’re so important.
What is quality assurance?
Quality assurance is what confirms that a product meets quality standards. This is during the product development. It’s a part of the quality management system. These tests also take place after the software development life cycle is complete. Quality assurance ensures that the product develops according to the user’s expectations.
Key principles of Quality assurance
- It focuses on preventing defects. It also finds flaws during and after product development.
- It involves real people testing the product. This ensures that it meets user needs.
- It can be an ongoing and repetitive process. The product should be free from any errors.
- Quality assurance always comes before quality control. QC is the next step after QA.
What is quality control?
Quality control is also a part of the quality management system. Quality control begins after the product development is complete. Here, you conduct many tests to ensure the product is of the highest quality. Unlike quality assurance, it does not go through the quality of the processes. It makes sure that the product’s quality is in good condition. Mainly after it reaches the market.
Key principles of Quality control
- Testing and verification lets quality control detect defects asap.
- It’s high-level procedure. So, quality control finds problems that quality assurance misses.
- It’s a detailed and time-consuming process. It takes time to test the product.
- In Quality control we always execute the program.
Quality assurance vs quality control: What’s the difference?
60% of organizations using automated tests report significant app quality improvements. After all, whether it’s an app or a piece of cloth, one of the first things we notice is the quality. It’s the same thing with quality assurance and quality control. Both sound similar and also have quality in their names. However, their purposes are different. Here are the key differences explained:
Proactive vs reactive
Quality assurance is a proactive process. This means it aims to find issues or bugs before they occur. In quality assurance, we see potential problems that don’t exist yet. The goal is to ensure that the product works fine. It also guarantees that there is no likelihood of errors or malfunctions. This is done through testing and continuous improvement.
Quality control is a reactive process. This means it aims to find defects in the project after they occur. In quality assurance vs quality control, QC reacts to the problems discovered. This could be a bug or malfunction in the software. It involves severe inspections, testing, and analysis to find any product quality flaws.
Process-oriented vs product-oriented
In quality assurance vs quality control, QA is process-oriented. This means that it focuses on preventing quality issues by designing processes. These procedures are designed to improve the software’s quality. They also help prevent quality defects before they even occur. This shows that QA focuses on the software development life cycle process.
Quality control is different; it’s product-oriented. This means that it focuses on finding quality issues in manufactured products. Specifically ones that could affect user satisfaction. Both QA and QC are focused on user expectations and quality standards. But there’s a difference in how they do it. QC focuses on the product more than the process.
System vs parts
Quality Assurance takes a low system-level approach. This helps it focus on the entire process and methods used to produce it. This ensures that all parts of the software development process are optimized for high quality. It looks at how processes are structured. It also looks at how teams work together. This is to see how they achieve quality results from the beginning.
Quality Control focuses on the product’s specific components. It takes a high system-level approach. It deals with inspecting and testing individual items. This is to detect defects or issues that might have occurred during production. QC concerns most with the end result.
Verification vs validation
Quality assurance paves the way for software development. The results we get through QA activities help us create high-quality products. It does so through verification. It verifies the standards of the product’s design and other things.
Quality control paves the way for software launch. The results we get through QC activities help us launch high-quality products. It does so through validation. It validates the product’s efficiency before launch. This also confirms it after development.
The people involved
Quality assurance tends to involve the whole team. It involves the developers, designers, and testers. This is because this step in testing revolves around preventing and improving. Hence why, a broad group of people are involved.
Quality control tends to include specific team members. This is because this step is more significant. The product has already been created. So now all that’s left is testing it finally before launch. This is the step that Knight Capital mainly missed. This caused them their downfall.
Benefits of Quality assurance vs quality control
The businesses that use QA and AC methods experience an average of 9% increase in sales. Additionally, it also causes a 26% increase in profitability. A slight increase in sales is better than none. Let’s see the benefits of quality assurance vs quality control:
Quality assurance
- Ever felt annoyed by a noisy car engine? Or had a cloth tear by getting stuck somewhere? This happened because it lacked quality. QA lets you build strong trust with your customers by delivering exactly what they want.
- Identify problems early in the software development life cycle. This will reduce the chances of reworking and cut costs. Poor data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million per year to fix!
- QA helps prevent legal issues regarding software. This is because it will ensure your products meet standards.
- You can minimize user frustration by eliminating risks or bugs in the software. This will automatically help raise user satisfaction.
- Naturally gives you a competitive advantage because you deliver the best quality.
Do you still need reasons to conduct quality assurance testing for your software project?
Quality control
- Loyal customers have been a milestone for businesses. Quality control delivers high ongoing quality for any software. This can indirectly increase customer loyalty.
- Quality control can help save money. It’s because it detects issues in software before problems arise.
- Its high level testing ensures that there are no risks in the launch. If testers notice risks, they are fixed before launch.
- QC helps reduce the chance of accidents. Such as products like Tesla that involve a user’s safety.
- Quality control helps your brand build a strong reputation. This will keep clients coming back!
There are many benefits of QA and QC. Skipping these phases is never a good idea. Think of a favorite brand of yours. Isn’t that brand’s quality amazing? That brand has gone through different stages of quality management. All just to deliver you the best.
Best practices for Quality assurance vs quality control
Quality assurance vs quality control work together. They might seem like an extra process. but, after reading this far, you probably know they’re essential. Here, we’ve compiled some of the best practices for them:
Quality assurance
- Know what to expect: Create clear and well-documented quality expectations for your software.
- Test systematically: Conduct your tests methodically. Cover many case scenarios to ensure your app stays in a good position.
- Focus on feedback: Feedback that you gather from users is very important. It shows you what your users want. Improve according to it.
- Take a unique approach: Don’t just stick to automated tests. Conduct manual tests, too. This will help you understand your own software.
Quality control
- Identify areas for improvement: Regularly review and analyze quality data. This will help you identify and apply changes. It will enhance the quality over time.
- Improve the user experience: Ensuring the highest quality at the end will help you deliver a good user experience. It will increase customer loyalty, too.
- Ensure high security: Everyone wants their data to stay safe. 66% of users have uninstalled certain apps. Why? Because they were concerned about their security.
- Consider Agile and DevOps methods: This is where continuous testing is critical. It’s because it speeds up product delivery. This means faster time to market.
These are the best practices that you should follow. It will get you effective quality assurance vs quality control.
Conclusion
So, now you know the importance of quality assurance vs quality control. They have the power to make or break your brand’s reputation. Of course, no brand wants to be known for its low-quality products. Delivering high-quality software can give you a competitive edge. Linkitsoft specializes in the quality management system for software. We conduct lots of automated and manual tests. This helps us make sure your product meets quality standards.
Contact us today and start giving the best quality to your audience. Give your business a strong advantage with Linkitsoft. Don’t miss out on this chance. Let’s work together and deliver the best to our clients!
