Understanding Quality Control in Software Testing

Errors in the software development process can be costly. It can also lengthen the development timeline and cause quite a headache. To prevent these scenarios, developers perform quality control in software testing.

Quality control ensures that the software product meets all quality parameters. It is more than just fixing errors and bugs. It is about verifying the product’s compliance with the functional requirements.

Quality Control (QC) vs. Quality Assurance (QA)

Many people confuse these two terms and often use them interchangeably. But quality control is different from quality assurance. Here are the significant differences between these two processes:

• QC detects the bugs and errors in the developed software. QA ensures the quality of the processes used during the development process.
• QC identifies defects through testing, while QA prevents defects.
• QC is product oriented, while QA is process oriented.
• QC is reactive because it detects flaws after the product is developed. QA, on the other hand, is proactive.
• QC involves the testing team, while QA involves the entire development team.

What Are the Software Quality Control Activities Involved?

Software quality control activities fall under two general categories. These are Review Activities and Testing Activities.

Review activities check the different aspects of the development process. The activities involved are:

• Requirement review
• Design review
• Code review
• Deployment plan review
• Test plan review
• Test cases review

After completing the review, it’s time to test the software product. Testing activities involve:

• Unit testing
• Integration testing
• System testing
• Destructive testing
• Non-destructive testing
• Fault injection
• Acceptance testing
• Release testing
• Maintenance testing

What Are the Core Characteristics of Software Quality Control (SQC)?

According to ISO/IEC 9126, SQC has six critical characteristics. These are:

1. Functionality. This refers to the capabilities of the software product. It measures suitability, accuracy, interoperability, and security.
2. Reliability. This checks how the product will behave under specific conditions. It measures maturity, fault tolerance, and recoverability.
3. Usability. This refers to how end-users complete specific tasks using the product. It involves understandability, learnability, operability, and attractiveness.
4. Efficiency. This checks how the product requires resources over time. Efficiency includes time behavior and resource utilization.
5. Maintainability. This refers to the extent to which the product can be modified. It involves analyzability, changeability, stability, and testability.
6. Portability. Portability includes adaptability, installability, coexistence, and replaceability.

Professional Software Testing Services by BIT Studios

BIT Studios ensures that our software products are of the highest possible quality. Our team of QA experts and developers use leading technologies and methodologies. We have the tools and experience to identify all potential errors on time. We provide manual and automated software testing. We also offer software testing consultancy services.

Our rigorous quality control process ensures zero flaws in your product. Our team conducts various software testing techniques to fix and eliminate bugs. Plus, our UX-rapid prototyping approach minimizes risks and errors in the development process. Give us a call to talk to our experts about your next project.