The testing world has a lot of terms for the activity that we undertake every day. In the classic definition QC is short for Quality Control, a process of verifying predefined requirements for quality. In the terms of an assembly-line this might involve pulling manufactured units off at the end of the process and verifying different parts of the assembly process. For software the QC function may involve checking the software against a set of requirements and verifying that the software meets the predefined requirements.
Quality Assurance, on the other hand, is much more about providing the continuous and consistent improvement and maintenance of process that enables the QC job. We use the QC process to verify a product does what we think it does, and we use the QA process to give us confidence that the product will meet the needs of customers. To that end the QA process can be considered a meta process that includes aspects of the QC process. It also goes beyond that to influence usability and design, to verify that functionality is not only correct, but useful.
We look at this as a bridge between the meta world of QA and the concrete world of QC. Our approach allows us to ensure that we get the opportunity to think about customers and their needs, while we still provide results that are needed on day to day engineering projects.
