{"id":222,"date":"2026-02-26T18:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T18:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/?page_id=222"},"modified":"2026-03-31T16:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T16:24:07","slug":"quality-assurance-vs-quality-control","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/quality-assurance-vs-quality-control\/","title":{"rendered":"Quality Assurance vs Quality Control (Testing)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Quality Assurance (QA)<\/strong> and <strong>Quality Control (QC)<\/strong> are both essential to delivering high-quality software, but they are <strong>not <\/strong>the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>QA is preventive<\/strong> and <strong>focuses on processes<\/strong> to prevent defects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>QC is detective<\/strong> and <strong>focuses on the product<\/strong> to detect defects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"457\" height=\"231\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/files\/2026\/03\/QA-vs-QC-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-488\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/files\/2026\/03\/QA-vs-QC-1.jpg 457w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/files\/2026\/03\/QA-vs-QC-1-300x152.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 457px) 100vw, 457px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Software testing<\/strong> is a core <strong>QC activity<\/strong> but also provides feedback to improve QA processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To better understand the differences, take a look at the comparison table below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<table id=\"tablepress-2\" class=\"tablepress tablepress-id-2\">\n<thead>\n<tr class=\"row-1\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><\/td><th class=\"column-2\">Quality Assurance (QA)<\/th><th class=\"column-3\">Quality Control (QC)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody class=\"row-striping row-hover\">\n<tr class=\"row-2\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>Definition<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\"><strong>Process<\/strong>-oriented: Issue <strong><i>prevention<\/i><\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-3\"><strong>Product<\/strong>-oriented: Issue <strong><i>detection<\/i><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-3\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>Goal<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Ensure quality processes are established and correct<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Ensure product meets requirements<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-4\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>Who\u2019s Involved<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Project teams, Review Boards<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Testers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr class=\"row-5\">\n\t<td class=\"column-1\"><strong>Examples<\/strong><\/td><td class=\"column-2\">Policies, Standards, Risk Assessments. Tools &amp; Guidance, Change Control<\/td><td class=\"column-3\">Testing, Auditing, Reviews &amp; Inspections, Metrics &amp; Reporting<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<!-- #tablepress-2 from cache -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) are both essential to delivering high-quality software, but they are not the same thing. Software testing is a core QC activity but also provides feedback to improve QA processes. To better understand the differences, take a look at the comparison table below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-222","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/222\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/softwaretesting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}