Quality assurance (QA) is a process-centered approach to ensuring that a company or organization is providing the best possible products or services. It is related to quality control, which focuses on the end result, such as testing a sample of items from a batch after production. Although these terms are sometimes used interchangeably, quality assurance focuses on enhancing and improving the process that is used to create the end result, rather than focusing on the result itself. Among the parts of the process that are considered in QA are planning, design, development, production and service.
Quality assurance demands a degree of detail in order to be fully implemented at every step. Planning, for example, could include determining specific levels of quality or measurable results that the organization wants to achieve. Checking could involve testing and other objective measurements to determine whether the goals were met, rather than mere subjective evaluation of quality. Acting could mean a total revision in the manufacturing process to correct a technical or cosmetic flaw or very small changes to improve efficiency or accuracy.
Competition to provide specialized products and services often results in breakthroughs as well as long-term growth and change. Quality assurance verifies that any customer offering, regardless whether it is new or evolved, is produced and offered with the best possible materials, in the most comprehensive way and with the highest standards. The goal to exceed customer expectations in a measurable and accountable process is provided by quality assurance.
