Quality Assurance Process

A Quality Assurance Process is a systematic process that ensures product quality through preventive measures, standard enforcement, and continuous improvement.

• AKA: QA Process, Quality Management Process, Quality Control Process, Quality System Process.
• Context:
  • It can typically establish quality standards with acceptance criteria and compliance requirements.
  • It can typically implement preventive actions to avoid defect introduction rather than defect detection.
  • It can typically conduct process audits for standard adherence and improvement opportunity identification.
  • It can often incorporate quality metrics for objective assessment and trend analysis.
  • It can often support continuous improvement through feedback loops and corrective actions.
  • It can often integrate with development processes for built-in quality rather than inspected quality.
  • It can range from being a Reactive QA Process to being a Proactive QA Process, depending on its timing focus.
  • It can range from being a Manual QA Process to being an Automated QA Process, depending on its tool utilization.
  • It can range from being a Prescriptive QA Process to being an Adaptive QA Process, depending on its flexibility level.
  • It can range from being a Product-Focused QA to being a Process-Focused QA, depending on its improvement target.
  • ...
• Examples:
  • Software Quality Assurance Processes, such as:
    • Code Review Process for code quality maintenance.
    • Testing Process for defect prevention.
  • Specialized QA Processes, such as:
    • AI System Determinism Process for predictable behavior enforcement.
    • Security QA Process for vulnerability prevention.
  • Manufacturing QA Processes, such as:
    • Statistical Process Control for variation reduction.
    • Six Sigma Process for defect minimization.
  • ...
• Counter-Examples:
  • Quality Control Inspection, which detects defects rather than prevents them.
  • Bug Fixing Process, which corrects problems rather than prevents them.
  • Customer Complaint Handling, which reacts to issues rather than prevents them.
• See: Quality Management, Process Improvement, Quality Standard, Continuous Improvement Process, Quality Control, ISO 9001, Total Quality Management.

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