What is Quality Assurance (QA) in Software Testing?

Before we learn Quality Assurance, let’s understand-

What is Quality?

Quality refers to how well a product meets user needs and expectations in terms of functionality, reliability, and value — often summarized as being ‘fit for purpose.’ It is all about meeting the needs and expectations of customers with respect to process-related aspects, design, reliability, durability, & price of the product.

What is Assurance?

Assurance is nothing but a positive declaration on a product or service, which gives confidence. It is the certainty of a product or a service that it will work as expected that provides confidence that the product will perform as intended under defined conditions.

How to do Quality Assurance: Complete Process

Quality Assurance methodology has a defined cycle called the PDCA cycle or Deming cycle. The phases of this cycle are:

• Plan
• Do
• Check
• Act

The above steps are repeated to ensure that processes followed in the organization are evaluated and improved on a periodic basis. Let’s look into the above QA Process steps in detail –

• Plan – The Organization should plan and establish the process-related objectives and determine the methods that are required to deliver a high-quality end product.
• Do – Execute the defined processes and implement any necessary changes.
• Check – Monitoring of processes, modify the processes, and check whether they meet the predetermined objectives.
• Act – A Quality Assurance tester should implement actions that are necessary to achieve improvements in the processes

An organization must use Quality Assurance to ensure that the product is designed and implemented with correct procedures. This helps reduce problems and errors in the final product.

With the PDCA cycle providing the framework for continuous improvement, QA teams employ various testing methodologies to ensure comprehensive quality coverage

Types of QA Testing

Quality Assurance (QA) testing involves multiple testing methodologies designed to ensure that a software product meets both functional and non-functional requirements. Below is a list of the most widely used QA testing types:

• Functional Testing
• Non-Functional Testing
• Regression Testing
• Smoke Testing
• Sanity Testing
• Usability Testing
• Security Testing
• Performance Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Exploratory Testing
• Automated Testing
• Manual Testing
• Acceptance Testing
• AI-Powered Testing
• Compliance Testing

While QA focuses on prevention through process improvement, Quality Control (QC) takes a complementary approach by examining the finished product.

What is Quality Control?

Quality Control is popularly abbreviated as QC. It is a Software Engineering process used to ensure quality in a product or a service. It does not deal with the methods used to create a product; rather, it examines the quality of the “end products” and the outcome.

The main aim of Quality Control is to check whether the products meet the specifications and requirements of the customer. If an issue or problem is identified, it needs to be fixed before delivery to the customer.

QC may also assess team members’ adherence to quality standards and provide relevant training. This evaluation is required for the service-based organization and helps provide “perfect” service to the customers.

What is the difference between Quality Control and Quality Assurance?

Sometimes, QC is confused with QA. Quality control is to examine the product or service and check for the result. Quality Assurance in Software Engineering is to investigate the processes and make changes to the processes that led to the end product.

Examples of QC and QA activities are as follows:

Quality Control Activities	Quality Assurance Activities
Walkthrough	Quality Audit
Testing,	Defining Process
Inspection	Tool Identification and Selection
Checkpoint review	Training of Quality Standards and Processes

The above activities are concerned with Quality Assurance and Control mechanisms for any product, and not essentially software. With respect to software

• QA becomes SQA (Software Quality Assurance)
• QC becomes Software Testing.

Differences between SQA and Software Testing

The following table explains the differences between SQA and Software Testing:

SQA	Software Testing
Software Quality Assurance is about the engineering process that ensures quality	Software Testing is to test a product for problems before the product goes live
Involves activities related to the implementation of processes, procedures, and standards. Example – Audits Training	Involves activities concerning the verification of the product. Example – Review Testing
Process focused	Product focused
Preventive technique	Corrective technique
Proactive measure	Reactive measure
The scope of SQA applies to all products that the organization will create	The scope of Software Testing applies to a particular product being tested.

Quality Assurance Functions

There are 5 primary Quality Assurance Functions:

1. Technology transfer: This function involves getting a product design document as well as trial and error data, and its evaluation. The documents are distributed, checked, and approved.
2. Validation: Here, the validation master plan for the entire system is prepared. Approval of test criteria for validating the product and process is set. Resource planning for the execution of a validation plan is done.
3. Documentation: This function controls the distribution and archiving of documents. Any change in a document is made by adopting the proper change control procedure. Approval of all types of documents.
4. Assuring the Quality of Products: This function ensures that products meet established specifications through systematic inspection, testing, and verification activities throughout the production lifecycle.
5. Quality improvement plans: This function involves identifying areas for improvement, setting measurable quality objectives, and implementing corrective and preventive actions to enhance overall product and process quality.

Quality Assurance Certifications

There are several certifications available in the industry to ensure that Organizations follow Standards and Quality Processes. Customers make this a qualifying criterion while selecting a software vendor.

ISO 9000

Established in 1987, ISO 9000 defines standards for Quality Management Systems (QMS). This helps the organization ensure quality for its customers and other stakeholders. An organization that wishes to be certified as ISO 9000 is audited based on its functions, products, services, and processes. The main objective is to review and verify whether the organization is following the process as expected and to assess whether existing processes need improvement.

This certification helps –

• Increase the profit of the organization
• Improves Domestic and International trade
• Reduces waste and increases the productivity of the employees
• Provide Excellent customer satisfaction

CMMI level

The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process improvement approach developed specifically for software process improvement. It is based on the process maturity framework and used as a general aid in business processes in the Software Industry. This model is highly regarded and widely used in Software Development Organizations.

CMMI has 5 levels. Organizations are formally appraised (evaluated) at CMMI levels 1 to 5, reflecting their process maturity.

• Level 1 – Initial: In this stage, the quality of the environment is unstable. Simply, no processes have been followed or documented.
• Level 2 – The repeatable: Some processes are repeatable. This level ensures processes are followed at the project level.
• Level 3 – Defined: A Set of processes is defined and documented at the organizational level. Those defined processes are subject to some degree of improvement.
• Level 4 – Managed: This level uses process metrics and effectively controls the processes that are followed.
• Level 5 – Optimizing: This level focuses on the continuous improvement of the processes through learning & innovation.

Test Maturity Model (TMM)

This model assesses the maturity of processes in a Testing Environment. Even this model has 5 levels, defined below-

• Level 1 – Initial: There is no quality standard followed for testing processes, and only ad-hoc methods are used at this level
• Level 2 – Definition: Defined process. Preparation of the test strategy, plans, and test cases is done.
• Level 3 – Integration: Testing is carried out throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC), which is nothing but integration with the development activities, E.g., V-Model.
• Level 4 – Management and Measurement: Review of requirements and designs takes place at this level, and criteria have been set for each level of testing
• Level 5 – Optimization: Many preventive techniques are used for testing processes, and tool support(Automation) is used to improve the testing standards and processes.

As organizations mature in their QA practices, emerging technologies like artificial intelligence are transforming how teams predict and prevent defects.

AI in QA Testing: How Machine Learning Predicts Defects

Machine Learning (ML) in QA testing empowers teams to predict software defects before they occur by analyzing historical data, code changes, and testing patterns. ML algorithms detect anomalies, identify risk-prone modules, and prioritize testing areas that are most likely to fail. This proactive approach helps prevent critical bugs early in the development cycle.

By leveraging predictive analytics, AI models continuously learn from past test results and refine their accuracy over time. They assist in optimizing test coverage, reducing redundant cases, and improving resource allocation. As a result, organizations achieve faster releases with fewer defects, transforming QA from a reactive process into a data-driven, intelligent quality assurance ecosystem.

Best practices for Quality Assurance

• Create a Robust Testing Environment
• Select release criteria carefully
• Apply automated testing to high-risk areas to save money. It helps to fasten the entire process.
• Allocate Time Appropriately for each process
• It is important to prioritize bug fixes based on software usage
• Form a dedicated security and performance testing team
• Simulate customer accounts similar to a production environment

FAQs: