What is the main difference between Quality Assurance and Quality control.

Quality is an important factor when it comes to any product or service. In order to maintain or enhance the quality, manufacturers use two techniques, Quality Control and Quality Assurance. They are closely related, but they are different concepts. They have strong interdependence, Quality Assurance relies mostly on the Quality Control feedback and both work to deliver good quality products/services, but they are different processes.

Quality Assurance makes sure that you are doing the right things in the right way. It is a set of activities designed to ensure that the development and maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives. The goal of Quality Assurance is to prevent defects in the software application which help to improve the development and testing processes. It basically aims to prevent defects to improve the quality. Quality Assurance is process oriented. Verification is an example of Quality Assurance. It is done before Quality Control. Quality Assurance is a failure prevention system.

Similarly, Quality Control does not control quality. Rather they measure quality, by verifying that what was implemented matches the requirements. Quality Control makes sure the results of what you have done are what you expected. Quality Control is a set of activities for ensuring quality in products. The activities focus on identifying defects in the actual products produced. Quality Control is used to verify the quality of the output. The goal of Quality Control is to identify the defects in the software application after it is developed. Testing team is responsible for Quality control. Quality Control is product oriented. Validation is an example of Quality Control. It is done only after Quality Assurance activity is completed. Quality Control is a failure detection system

Hope this article helps you to understand the difference between Quality Assurance and Quality control.