Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance software development describes a group of activities, which together ensure that the product to be produced will satisfy the specific requirements,  comply with agreed standards, be free of bugs and be capable of operating at times of heavy load.  QA includes both process assurance and product assurance. 

Process assurance gives management confidence that software development and control processes conform with procedures. 

Product assurance provides confidence that software applications will conform to standards.  This should include the project standards and procedures.  Standards include those associated with design, documentation and code.  Other activities include all the different varieties of testing: validation testing, data comparison, stress testing, usability testing. 

QA plans will vary according to the project needs, the users and the software itself.  For each type of test a systematic test plan should be constructed to test for different capabilities, deficiencies, adherence to standards, processes and procedures.  Audits are used to review both process and product assurance methods and run alongside all stages of the software development lifecycle.