Quality assurance is an important activity in any organization. The way quality assurance is done varies by company. Implementing quality control processes is beneficial for the organization in the long run.

Steps involved in the quality assurance process

1) Project definition

The project manager identifies a team of people who can perform quality related tasks. A quality control team is better than doing it with inexperienced staff. The quality control team evaluates and controls the level of quality of the output.

The quality assurance process is independent of any interference. A set of rules and principles dictate the course of action in quality assurance. Quality assurance people may have a matrix structure of reporting. They may report to one manager or many managers as per the project.

A team is as good as its definitions of tasks and key resource areas. The team should embark on the task of identifying quality controls and putting together a framework. An initial review of existing products, processes and technologies is undertaken. A gap analysis is conducted to understand the extent of discrepancy. The areas where quality control is needed are identified.

2) Planning

Once the definition of tasks is solidified, the freezing of quality assurance requirements commences. Quality assurance is a broad category of tasks. It encapsulates a range of actions. It is important to scope these tasks to fit the project needs. Quality assurance tasks are scoped and purposed.

3) Generating test plans

The next phase is generating test plans. Test cases are a subset of a test plan. Test planning takes place in certain business processes during the project definition phase itself. The type of quality assurance methodology and process is a function of the system development life cycle. In Agile system development life cycles, the quality assurance process starts in parallel from the project definition phase itself.

4) Executing the test plans

The quality control team executes the test plans. The test plans can be of a dynamic nature. There could be system development design changes, and this could affect the test cases and the test planning. The quality assurance team should be ready to handle this kind of agility in the project.

5) Feedback and signoff

In a software development firm, the testing of a system has many phases. These are divided into pre-production, user acceptance testing, and production testing. On successful completion of production testing, the quality assurance team signs off the project as mission accomplished.