A Few Thoughts on QA vs. QC

Testing is more on the quality control side of the overall quality paradigm. This of course is typically at or near the end of the life-cycle. True QA, on the other hand encompasses evaluating defects in the process, not just the software. I would say this concept is one of the most challenging to implement across an organization- especially if you are being asked to ensure that software is deployed defect free by finding “all” the bugs during testing. The truth may be that there is a defect in the analysis process (at the beginning) and the unit testing process. What if fixing those 2 process defects resolved 90% of the problems found during testing? I’ve seen this scenario happen on numerous occasions. Bottom line.... if you can fix both process problems in QA and software defects in QC, achieving defect-free software along with customer satisfaction is a cake walk.