Quality assurance (QA) is the process of verifying that a product or service meets specific quality standards. This is often done through a combination of testing and inspection, and is typically performed by a dedicated QA team or by an individual with expertise in quality assurance. This may encompass areas such as organizational structure, processes, systems, design, reliability engineering and human factors. The goal of QA is to identify and address any issues or defects in a product or service before it is released to customers. This can help ensure that the product or service meets the expectations of its users and is free of defects or errors that could negatively impact its performance.
QA processes are typically implemented at various stages of the product development lifecycle, including during the design and development phase, during testing, and prior to launch. This can help ensure that any issues or defects are identified and addressed early in the development process, before the product or service is released to customers. QA processes typically involve a combination of manual testing and inspection, as well as automated testing using specialized software tools. Manual testing involves a QA team or individual manually testing the product or service to identify any issues or defects. Automated testing, on the other hand, involves using specialized software tools to test the product or service automatically, allowing for more efficient and comprehensive testing.
Overall, quality assurance is a critical part of the product development process. By verifying that a product or service meets specific quality standards, QA helps ensure that the product or service is able to meet the expectations of its users and is free of defects or errors that could impact its performance.
The following are common techniques and considerations.
- Benchmarking
- Business Capabilities
- Business Process Reengineering
- Compliance
- Configuration Management
- Conformance Quality
- Continuous Improvement
- Fail-safe
- Fit For Purpose
- Gap Analysis
- Graceful Degradation
- Human Error
- Incident Management
- Ishikawa Diagrams
- Kaizen
- Latent Human Error
- Operations Analysis
- Pokayoke
- Problem Analysis
- Problem Management
- Process Improvement
- Quality
- Quality Control
- Quality Goals
- Quality Objectives
- Quality Policy
- Reliability Engineering
- Requirements
- Safety By Design
- Service Management
- Specifications
