Demystifying Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Software Testing to best serve our clients' needs

By Julia Payul

Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Software Testing are closely related. Still, there is confusion in the definition and when each is needed. Below we will define them, explain the differences, and provide some guidelines that we use at Ballast Lane Applications to help our clients.

In short, Quality Assurance focuses on ensuring the effectiveness of the software development process, Quality Control focuses on evaluating and verifying the quality of the software product itself, and Software Testing is a specific activity within Quality Control that focuses on evaluating the software's behavior and performance. Below are more detailed descriptions of each.

What is Quality Assurance (QA)?

QA is a set of activities and processes that prevent defects and quality issues by establishing standards, procedures, and guidelines throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC). QA activities may include:

• Defining and implementing software quality standards, best practices, and test strategy;
• Establishing and enforcing software quality management systems;
• Identifying and addressing process improvement opportunities, test metrics, etc.

The goal of QA is to ensure that the development process is effective, efficient, and consistent, resulting in the delivery of high-quality software products.

What is Quality Control (QC)?

QC is the process of evaluating and verifying the quality of the software product itself. It focuses on detecting defects, errors, and nonconformities by conducting inspections, tests, and reviews. QC activities are typically performed at specific stages of the SDLC such as during development, before release, or after deployment. QC activities may include:

• Performing inspections and reviews to identify defects and issues;
• Conducting software testing to validate the software against specified requirements;
• Tracking and managing defects;
• Conducting root cause analysis and corrective actions, etc.

The goal of QC is to identify and rectify any quality-related issues in the software product, ensuring that it meets the desired level of quality and is fit for its intended purpose.

What is Software Testing?

Software Testing is a specific subset of QC, focused on evaluating the behavior and performance of the software through systematic and controlled experiments. It involves executing the software with the intent of finding defects, verifying its functionality, and validating its compliance with specified requirements. Testing activities may include:

• Designing and executing test cases and test scenarios;
• Performing different types of testing (e.g. functional and non-functional testing);
• Ensuring that changes do not break existing functionality (smoke testing, sanity testing, regression testing, etc).

Software Testing aims to uncover defects and verifies that the software functions as expected, meets the specified requirements, and satisfies the needs of the end user.

How do we know what the client needs?

Determining the need for QA, QC, and Software Testing in a project involves several considerations. Here are some steps that we follow in Ballast Lane Applications as part of our quality playbook:

1. Understand the project objectives, scope, and requirements:?We consider the complexity, size, and criticality of the project.
2. Evaluate the software development process:?We take into account factors such as the development methodology, the size and the composition of the development team, the projects’ timeline, etc.
3. Identify and analyze potential project risks:?Technical complexity, dependencies on external systems or components, resources, and time constraints are the risk factors that we consider.
4. Consider industry or regulatory requirements:?We evaluate any industry-specific quality standards, regulations, or compliance requirements that the software project must adhere to.

Based on the above considerations, here are some of the general guidelines that we follow at Ballast Lane Applications:

• If the project is large, complex, and critical, it is likely to benefit from having dedicated QA and QC processes in place. QA can help ensure that the software development process is effective and efficient, while QC can focus on evaluating the software product itself.
• If the project has specific regulatory or compliance requirements, such as in industries like healthcare or finance, we believe that both QA and QC should be involved to ensure adherence to those standards.
• For smaller and less complex software projects, we focus our efforts on essential functionalities and ensuring basic quality standards, through testing. Testing is an integral part of quality control and we insist that it is performed on all projects to verify that the software's behavior and performance are as expected.

Ultimately, we determine the need for QA, QC, and/or Software Testing based on a thorough analysis of the project's specific characteristics, requirements, and risks, in addition to our prior experience with similar clients. We involve experienced quality professionals to assist in the decision-making process and help customize the quality processes to the client's unique business needs.