Quality Control:
Controls placed on the manufacture, distribution, and/or sales of products and services to assure customers that the quality of the goods and services will remain at the industry's or manufacturer's standard for quality throughout all areas of production and sales. For example, in the printing industry, most reputable printers will take random samples from a run to check the consistency of quality throughout the run.

Quality assurance:
Quality assurance (QA) is the activity of providing evidence needed to establish confidence among all concerned, that quality-related activities are being performed effectively. All those planned or systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a product or service will satisfy given requirements for quality.

For products, quality assurance is a part and consistent pair of quality management proving fact-based external confidence to customers and other stakeholders that a product meets needs, expectations, and other requirements. QA assures the existence and effectiveness of procedures that attempt to make sure - in advance - that the expected levels of quality will be reached.

QA covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing to documentation. It introduced the sayings "fit for purpose" and "do it right the first time". It includes the regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production, and inspection processes.

Answered by keshto , an ibibo Master, at 7:08 PM on August 15, 2008

well, Many people and organizations are confused about the difference between quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), A set of activities designed to ensure that the development and/or maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives.
A set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product

Answered by Debashis , an ibibo Master, at 4:29 PM on August 15, 2008

Well, The difference between quality assurance and quality control is that

o Quality assurance aims to assure that quality work and quality deliverables will be built in before work is done
o Quality control aims to determine that quality work and quality deliverables did occur after work was done
o Quality control is conducted by inspection and testing

For more information , Please visit the source site :

http://www.maxwideman.com/issa cons1/iac1190/tsld002.htm

Answered by Alok Gupta , an ibibo Guru, at 3:52 PM on August 15, 2008

Quality control and quality assurance are important concepts, yet most project managers have only a vague understanding of the meanings and the differences between these terms. It's actually pretty easy.

Quality Control refers to quality related activities associated with the creation of project deliverables. Quality control is used to verify that deliverables are of acceptable quality and that they are complete and correct. Examples of quality control activities include deliverable peer reviews and the testing process.

Quality Assurance refers to the process used to create the deliverables, and can be performed by a manager, client, or even a third-party reviewer. Examples of quality assurance include process checklists and project audits. If your project gets audited, for instance, an auditor might not be able to tell if the content of a specific deliverable is acceptable (quality control). However, the auditor should be able to tell if the deliverable seems acceptable based on the process used to create it (quality assurance). That's why project auditors can perform a quality assurance review on your project, even if they do not know the specifics of what you are delivering. They don't know your project, but they know what good processes look like.

Answered by jaivir , an ibibo Master, at 3:33 PM on August 15, 2008

Quality assurance (QA) is the activity of providing evidence needed to establish confidence among all concerned, that quality-related activities are being performed effectively. All those planned or systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a product or service will satisfy given requirements for quality.

For products, quality assurance is a part and consistent pair of quality management proving fact-based external confidence to customers and other stakeholders that a product meets needs, expectations, and other requirements. QA assures the existence and effectiveness of procedures that attempt to make sure - in advance - that the expected levels of quality will be reached.

QA covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing to documentation. It introduced the sayings "fit for purpose" and "do it right the first time". It includes the regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production, and inspection processes.

The term Quality Assurance, as used in the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulation 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, comprises all those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a structure, system, or component will perform satisfactorily in service. Quality assurance includes quality control, which comprises those quality assurance actions related to the physical characteristics of a material, structure, component, or system which provide a means to control the quality of the material, structure, component, or system to predetermined requirements.

One of the most widely used paradigms for QA management is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach, also known as the Shewhart cycle.

The operational techniques and the activities that sustain the quality of a product or service in order to satisfy given requirements. Quality control is a major component of total quality management and is applicable to all phases of the product life cycle: design, development, manufacturing, delivery and installation, and operation and maintenance.

The quality-control cycle consists of four steps: quality planning, data collection, data analysis, and implementation. Quality planning consists of defining measurable quality objectives. Quality objectives are specific to the product or service and to the phase in their life cycle, and they should reflect the customer's requirements.

The collection of data about product characteristics that are relevant to the quality objectives is a key element of quality control. These data include quantitative measurements (measurement by variables), as well as determination of compliance with given standards, specifications, and required product features (measurement by attributes). Measurements may be objective, that is, of physical characteristics, which are often used in the control of the quality of services. Since quality control was originally developed for mass manufacturing, which relied on division of labor, measurements were often done by a separate department. However, in the culture of Total Quality Management, inspection is often done by the same individual or team producing the item.

The data are analyzed in order to identify situations that may have an adverse effect on quality and may require corrective or preventive action. The implementation of those actions as indicated by the analysis of the data is undertaken, including modifications of the product design or the production process, to achieve continuous and sustainable improvement in the product and in customer satisfaction.

The methods and techniques for data analysis in quality control are generic and can be applied to a variety of situations. The techniques are divided into three main categories: diagnostic techniques; process control, which include

Answered by Nishu's , an ibibo Master, at 12:19 PM on August 15, 2008

hello ranju Many people and organizations are confused about the difference between quality assurance (QA), quality control (QC), and testing. They are closely related, but they are different concepts.



But all these three are useful to manage risks of developing and managing software.


Quality Assurance: A set of activities designed to ensure that the development and/or maintenance process is adequate to ensure a system will meet its objectives.
Quality Control: A set of activities designed to evaluate a developed work product.
Testing: The process of executing a system with the intent of finding defects. (Note that the "process of executing a system" includes test planning prior to the execution of the test cases.)
QA activities ensure that the process is defined and appropriate. Methodology and standards development are examples of QA activities. A QA review would focus on the process elements of a project - e.g., are requirements being defined at the proper level of detail.



QC activities focus on finding defects in specific deliverables - e.g., are the defined requirements the right requirements



Testing is one example of a QC activity, but there are others such as inspections



The difference is that QA is process oriented and QC is product oriented.



Testing therefore is product oriented and thus is in the QC domain. Testing for quality isn't assuring quality, it's controlling it.



Quality Assurance makes sure you are doing the right things, the right way.

Quality Control makes sure the results of what you've done are what you expected.





Source:

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?QualityA ssuranceIsNotQualityControl

http ://www.mosaicinc.com/mosaicinc/rmTh isMonth.asp


for more inf check source

Answered by raj u , an ibibo Master, at 11:09 AM on August 15, 2008