Quality Management and Quality Assurance

QM

Quality management (QM) covers all organizational activities and measures that serve to control quality. Quality management is usually responsible for defining quality policies, quality objectives, quality planning, quality assurance, and quality improvement. This makes quality management a core management activity. Quality management is mandatory in industries such as aviation, automotive, and healthcare.

ISO 9000

The ISO 9000 family of quality management standards [ISO 9000] is widely used, and the ISO/IEC 90003 Software Engineering standard [ISO 90003] stipulates how the ISO 9001 [ISO 9001] general guidelines are applied to computer software.

QA

Quality assurance (QA) usually concentrates on measures which aim to ensure that specified procedures are applied and defined processes are adhered to. It is assumed, if a company sticks to its predefined processes, that it will fulfill the required quality characteristics and therefore achieve the specified quality levels. Under these circumstances, the results will usually show increased quality, which in turn helps to avoid failures in the work products and the corresponding documentation.

QA and testing

The term “quality assurance” is often used when referring to testing processes or even as a synonym for testing. QA and testing processes are closely related but are definitely not the same. QA generates confidence in the fulfillment of quality requirements, which can be achieved by testing. Effective QA also involves analyzing the causes of all kinds of defects, and serves to identify (test) and remedy (debug) them. The results are discussed in meetings called “retrospectives” and can be used to improve the processes involved. Testing therefore serves to demonstrate that the required quality levels are achieved.

Testing activity is part of the overall software development and maintenance process and, because QA is about making sure such processes are implemented and executed correctly, QA also supports effective testing. The following section describes the testing process itself in more detail.