Report on Overview of Quality Assurance

Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction

Quality Assurance (QA) is a systematic process of determining whether a product or a service

meets specified requirements. ISO 9000 defines QA as "part of quality management focused on
providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled". QA establishes and maintains set
requirements for developing or manufacturing reliable products.

1.2 Background

TQM consist of two broad segments, which includes; quality assurance and quality control. The
terms "quality assurance" and "quality control" are often used interchangeably to refer to ways of
ensuring the quality of a service or product. The quality assurance is based on the procedural and
administrative activities implemented in a quality system so that the requirements and goals for a
product, service or activity will be fulfilled. QA builds the quality of the system

On the other hand, we have QC, which is a production-focused process. The QC is based on
inspection an addresses other issues including individual inspections or defects. In terms of
software development, QC implements testing, troubleshooting and fixing the codes.

History of QC and QA

Even though the concept of quality has existed from early times, the study and definition of
quality have been given prominence only in the last century.

In 1920s, following the Industrial Revolution and the rise of mass production, it became more
important to define and control the quality of the products. The initial goal of establishment of
quality was to ensure that engineering requirements were met in the final products. Later, as the
manufacturing process became more complex, the quality developed into a discipline for
controlling process variations as a means of producing quality products.

In 1950s, the quality profession expanded to include the quality assurance and quality audit
functions. QA practices became more relevant in the Unites States during World War II, when
high volumes of munitions had to be inspected.

The ISO opened in Geneva in 1947 and published its first standard in 1951 on reference
temperatures for industrial measurements. The ISO gradually grew and expanded its scope of
standards. The ISO 9000 family of standards was published in 1987; each 9000 number offers
different standards for different scenarios. QA standards have changed and been updated over
time, and ISO standards need to change in order to stay relevant to today's businesses.
1.3 Objectives

The main objectives of quality assurance is:

 To improve quality of products or services that the company provides,

 To provide optimum customer satisfaction through the quality products and
 To find threats, bugs and optimize them before handing the products back to the customers

1.4 Methodology of the study

QA provides different methodologies to carry on various test cases.

1.4.1