Difference between QA and Software Testing

Quality Assurance and Software Testing are often confused, and even though they seem to be the same thing, those two concepts have different objectives, specific features and distinct processes.  

What are the differences between QA and testing? We will help you find the answer and fully comprehend what these two fields entail and how not to confuse them.

What is Quality Assurance?

Even the best developers happen to make mistakes; no matter how much attention you pay to code quality, it might be inevitable that errors or bugs appear. Quality Assurance’s main goal is to avoid those mistakes in the project.

When QA specialists work on a project, they implement a set of methods, tools and procedures to make sure that the developed product or service corresponds to all the necessary specifications (such as SRS, FRS or BRS) and works seamlessly. 

Quality Assurance is a part of quality management and is based on a previously prepared strategy; it helps prevent unwanted bugs in the software. By maintaining the product’s integrity, QA gives stakeholders the confidence that the software development process will run smoothly and that the delivered product or service will meet all the necessary standards and requirements.

What is Quality Control?

Next to QA, we also have Quality Control. The difference between them is quite slight, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but we’ll explain the difference to you.

You already know from the previous paragraph what Quality Assurance is. However, to make you even better informed, we will add some details. Quality Assurance and Quality Control both serve to measure the quality, but they focus on the project from a slightly different perspective. QC helps to check the quality in the early stage of project development. On the other hand, QA focuses on implementing the review and structured testing during every step of the project.

Quality Assurance uses a quality system that is set up to complete administrative and procedural tasks. They create different strategies and help to establish goals for the product or service. The process implements regular measurements and comparisons with a standard monitoring process and the same time. Quality Control, though, is mainly focused on the process output; it’s a product-oriented based approach that encompasses Software Testing.

What is Software Testing?

Software Testing is another process that helps detect and repair possible defects, bugs, and errors in the system. It covers a range of methods, and each of them is responsible for testing the product, locating bugs and checking that everything is working smoothly and that the faults have been removed. 

The software testing process allows you to verify whether the system requirements and customer expectations have been met in terms of design, functioning, compatibility, or simply the overall quality of the product or service. Simply put, software testing is a way of testing the system to ensure that it presents its best version possible and that it doesn’t reach the customer if it is not.

What is the difference between Testing and Quality Assurance?

Now that you can tell what is Quality Assurance and Software Testing separately let’s compare them and find the most important differences. 

QA is a process that includes Testing, but it is much more than just that. First of all, it involves a much wider set of stakeholders than Software Testing. Quality Assurance is more complex and focused on a broader share of activities present during every step of the development process. Testing, on the other hand, is highly concentrated on the final quality. Also, it is focused more on a technical area than Quality Assurance. 

Let’s see how could we distinguish these two concepts by breaking them down into a few points.

Quality Assurance

• It is present during the whole development process; it helps check the quality at every step, helps avoid mistakes and correspond to established general specifications.

• It focuses on meeting the requirements and quality control.

• It is process-focused; the QA team works along with the developers during the whole process of creating a product or a service.

• It’s preventive; the main purpose is to avoid bugs and errors before they appear, so the product is maintained at its best from the very beginning.

• Its ultimate goal is to assure product/service quality.

Software Testing

• It is the process that examines an already developed system to find all the possible mistakes such as errors and bugs and repair them.

• It focuses on system inspection and finding faults in the software.

• It is product-focused; Software Testers check the product quality once the developers’ work is in the end. Testers look for already existing defects in the system.

• It is corrective; the main goal of Software Testing is to repair bugs, errors, etc., that have already appeared in the system’s code. 

• The main goal of Software Testing is to control the quality of the product or service. 

Conclusion

As you can see, even though these two terms are often used interchangeably, there are quite a few differences between Quality Assurance and Testing. They work in the same direction, have similar goals and are both necessary in a successful software development process. Knowing the difference between QA and testing and their importance in IT, you can be sure to provide the best service to your customers. 

Our team is the best example of the fact that such knowledge is useful in projects and contact with clients, and proper preparation allows you to develop the best products on the market. In BinarApps, we know what we do, and we work holistically, which is why we are successful. Thus, if you need support with the project, do not hesitate and estimate the project with our specialists.