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Nishil Patel
Oct 7, 2026
5 min read
Last Updated Oct 7, 2026
In this article, you’ll learn all about quality assurance (QA), how it’s different from quality control (QC), how QA benefits your product, popular QA methods, and the QA methodologies to run it for software.
1.
What is Quality Assurance (QA) | Definition
2.
Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control: QA vs QC
3.
Quality Assurance Methods
4.
Quality Assurance Benefits
5.
Quality Assurance (QA) Methodologies
6.
Quality Assurance (QA) Roles and Responsibilities | Quick Overview
7.
FAQs
Quality assurance (QA) is the systematic process to assure stakeholders (and end users) that a product is free from defects. QA is present in every stage of the product development to ensure that it meets the required specs and is developed with industry/company standards and guidelines.
For running QA for software at scale, the product company would typically partner with a company that specializes in quality assurance (QA) services. The key objective is to have dedicated QA experts to run quality tests from day one.
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 family standards provide guidelines specific to quality management and quality assurance. While the widely used ISO 9001:2015 standard applies broadly to any organization, specific guidelines for computer software are outlined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 90003:2018.
The manufacturing sector was one of the first sectors that instilled QA into its operations. Owing to its success, QA practices have become a norm in almost all industries and sectors worldwide.
Related: STLC: Getting Started with Software Testing
Software quality assurance or SQA aims to find and fix defects or bugs using bug life cycles. SQA engineers ensure that your software meets the specified requirements and checks green on functional and non-functional aspects.
SQA is a very effective and crucial process to ensure that your software meets industry standards. And, it’s an integral part of the both software development lifecycle (SDLC) and the software testing lifecycle (STLC).
Shifting left in testing means moving your QA processes earlier in the development lifecycle (to the "left" on a project timeline). Here, QA gets involved right as soon as the project kicks off. That is, from the initial design and requirements gathering phases itself. As a result, you can catch fundamental flaws before a single line of code is even written. And this drastically reduces your overall build costs and time-to-market.
Also Read: What’s the Average Cost of Fixing A Software Bug?
Quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) are often used or stated together. However, they are not the same and hold key differences between them. Here you go.
| Comparison Aspect | Quality Assurance (QA) | Quality Control (QC) |
| Process Type | QA is a proactive process which means that issues are anticipated beforehand to prevent them from getting introduced in the product in the first place. | QC is a reactive process which means that issues are identified as they come up during inspection, audit, or testing. |
| When its included | Included in both the software development cycle (SDLC) and software testing lifecycle (STLC). | Included in the software testing lifecycle (STLC). |
| When its executed | Program or functionality execution may or may not be required to conduct QA. | Program or functionality execution is mandatory to run QC checks. |
Read More: Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control
Failure testing in QA tests the limits of your product until it breaks. This is a very common and battle-tested method that is widely adopted and practiced in the manufacturing sector where a product is stress-tested under extreme conditions. Software companies use similar methods by stress-testing their products under variable user traffic and network conditions until the system starts experiencing failures.
Also Read: Bug Tracking Metrics: What to Measure and Why?
Meticulous assessments through regular internal and external audits powered by ISO 9000 and 9001 certifications ensure that your company’s processes and products meet the required standards based on set guidelines.
Also Read: How to Run Effective Sprint Retrospective Meetings in Agile : Step-by-Step
Root cause analysis (RCA) involves studying the issues at hand and trying to get to the bottom of it with a systematic approach starting from the top level. RCA is a problem-solving approach to get to the root cause of the issue to resolve it. This also helps prevent similar issues from happening again.
Statistical process control is a mathematical process to pinpoint key issues in a software product, with an emphasis on forecasting and averting issues in the first place. By monitoring certain characteristics (using statistical charts, which are referred to as “control charts”) of the product functionality over a period of time, you're able to find any unusual patterns of concern. An added advantage is that some SPC tools can operate autonomously, without the need for human intervention.
PPQA leverages gap analysis to ensure quality assurance for business processes and products within an organization. Gap analysis refers to assessing the difference between the current process/product state and the expected process/product state and analyzing it to verify whether or not the product requirements are met.
CMMI is a framework/model that helps your organization enhance its capabilities in developing and maintaining quality products and services. It provides best practices for process improvement, covering areas beyond SQA, such as project management, system engineering, and more. By identifying strengths and weaknesses, CMMI guides your organization’s maturity level towards continuous improvement in various areas. Maturity in CMMI refers to your organization’s overall process expertise, not just individual team members’ skills.
Test automation involves using special software to write, automate, and control the execution of tests and compare actual outcomes with predicted outcomes. Plus, with AI-powered QA is rapidly making strides, you can use ML algorithms to auto-generate test cases, predict where bugs are most likely to occur based on historical data, and conduct self-healing tests that adapt to minor code changes with little to no human supervision.
Also Read: Top 10 Automation Testing Tools for Quality Assurance (QA)
QA helps deliver polished products to end users. Its main goal is to identify issues in your product and systematically resolve them. Since QA is a proactive process, it ensures that no issues are left unaccounted for throughout the development process.
Your product quality speaks louder than anything. Current day consumers and users are well-informed and tech-forward. You cannot just launch a product and call it a day. Building a positive brand image through quality products is key to earning customer loyalty, strengthening trust, and honing long-term relationships. QA helps you do that.
QA should never be an afterthought process. If ignored, it could backfire and lead to reworks, unhappy customers, additional costs, and lost time. Avoiding QA and offering a substandard product to your customers is bad for your business. Investing in QA for your product lowers risks and ultimately saves you time and money in the long run.
Offering products that are developed with the set standards and compliance guidelines prevents a product from getting into legal trouble at all times. QA ensures that your product does not have such issues. Not abiding by the rules and regulations could lead to potential legal troubles, penalties, and damage to reputation. QA helps avoid such pitfalls.
QA processes result in quality products. This helps to target areas of improvement in an organization’s processes and deliverables. The corrective measures help to continually improve company workflows. And this leads to continuous improvement on all fronts.
QA can provide a framework for tracking vital KPIs that give management clear visibility into product health. For instance, bug tracking metrics, such as Defect Density (the number of bugs per module), Test Coverage (the percentage of code tested), and Defect Resolution Time enables you to measure the tangible ROI of your QA spendings and make data-backed decisions.
Also Read: Bug Tracking in Agile vs Waterfall: What's the Difference?
Waterfall methodology in the software industry utilizes linear steps or stages to develop and test software. It involves creating blueprints or plans from the requirement gathering stage to the release stage. Waterfall has been in the software scene for decades and is still used in numerous companies for product development and SQA testing processes. Its biggest downside is that it's a slow process.
Agile methodology is an iterative, flexible, highly adaptive, and efficient way to develop and test software. It excels in handling dynamic and complex software requirements. It is an iterative process for collaborative software development workflows involving cross-functional teams, managers, and stakeholders.
Also Read: Bug Tracking for Agile Teams: Why it Matters from Day One?
Scrum is a type of agile methodology that uses time-boxed iterative cycles to develop and test products. Kanban uses list boards to keep track of the software development processes. Lastly, DevOps uses multiple technologies and tools to fast-track workflows for the development, operations, and testing teams utilizing CI/CD pipelines.
QA processes are conducted by QA teams and require expert members for diverse areas. Here are some roles and responsibilities that you generally find in QA teams:
QA analysts monitor production or development processes to ensure that the product meets established quality standards. They create and implement test processes, execute standard procedures to verify product specifications and rectify any issues during production.
QA testers aim to review system specifications and execute test scripts. They also identify and document technical issues, conduct post-release testing, and collaborate with cross-functional teams.
QA engineers review quality specifications and technical design documents. They also develop comprehensive test plans and cases and execute both manual and automated tests to report and debug issues/bugs.
QA managers ensure and maintain overall product quality. They establish and maintain quality management and project tracking systems, plan and conduct internal quality audits, and ensure quality control procedures are implemented throughout production. They collaborate with various teams to ensure that the product adheres to legal requirements and oversee quality control at every stage.
Nishil is a successful serial entrepreneur. He has more than a decade of experience in the software industry. He advocates for a culture of excellence in every software product.
Meet the Author: Nishil Patel, CEO, and Co-founder of BetterBugs. With a passion for innovation and a mission to improve software quality.
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