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Quality Assurance |
Quality Control |
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A planned and systematic set of activities necessary to provide adequate confidence that requirements are properly established and products or services conform to specified requirements. |
The process by which product quality is compared with applicable standards; and the action taken when nonconformance is detected. |
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An activity that establishes and evaluates the processes to produce the products. |
An activity which verifies if the product meets pre-defined standards. |
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Helps establish processes. |
Implements the process. |
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Sets up measurements programs to evaluate processes. |
Verifies if specific attribute(s) are in a specific product or service |
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Identifies weaknesses in processes and improves them. |
Identifies defects for the primary purpose of correcting defects. |
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QA is the responsibility of the entire team. |
QC is the responsibility of the tester. |
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Prevents the introduction of issues or defects |
Detects, reports and corrects defects |
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QA evaluates whether or not quality control is working for the primary purpose of determining whether or not there is a weakness in the process. |
QC evaluates if the application is working for the primary purpose of determining if there is a flaw / defect in the functionalities. |
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QA improves the process that is applied to multiple products that will ever be produced by a process. |
QC improves the development of a specific product or service. |
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QA personnel should not perform quality control unless doing it to validate quality control is working. |
QC personnel may perform quality assurance tasks if and when required. |
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Validation |
Verification |
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Am I building the right product |
Am I building the product right |
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Determining if the system complies with the requirements and performs functions for which it is intended and meets the organization’s goals and user needs. It is traditional and is performed at the end of the project. |
The review of interim work steps and interim deliverables during a project to ensure they are acceptable. To determine if the system is consistent, adheres to standards, uses reliable techniques and prudent practices, and performs the selected functions in the correct manner. |
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Am I accessing the right data (in terms of the data required to satisfy the requirement) |
Am I accessing the data right (in the right place; in the right way). |
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High level activity |
Low level activity |
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Performed after a work product is produced against established criteria ensuring that the product integrates correctly into the environment |
Performed during development on key artifacts, like walkthroughs, reviews and inspections, mentor feedback, training, checklists and standards |
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Determination of correctness of the final software product by a development project with respect to the user needs and requirements |
Demonstration of consistency, completeness, and correctness of the software at each stage and between each stage of the development life cycle. |
Metric is a mathematical number that shows a relationship between two variables. It is a quantitative measure of the degree to which a system, component or process possesses a given attribute. Software Metrics are measures that are used to quantify the software, software development resource and software development process.
Metric generally classified into:
· Process Metric
· Product Metric
Process Metric: Metric used to measure the characteristic of the methods, techniques and tools employed in developing, implementing and maintaining the software system.
Product Metric: Metric used to measure the characteristic of the documentation and code.
The metrics for the test process would include status of test activities against the plan, test coverage achieved so far, among others. An important metric is the number of defects found in internal testing compared to the defects found in customer tests, which indicate the effectiveness of the test process itself.
TRAPS: Believe it or not, this is a killer question because so many candidates are unprepared for it. If you stammer or adlib you’ve blown it.
BEST ANSWER: By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer’s needs before you answer questions. If you know the employer’s greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to…reasons tied directly to his needs.
Whether your interviewer asks you this question explicitly or not, this is the most important question of your interview because he must answer this question favorably in is own mind before you will be hired. So help him out! Walk through each of the position’s requirements as you understand them, and follow each with a reason why you meet that requirement so well.
Example: “As I understand your needs, you are first and foremost looking for someone who can manage the sales and marketing of your book publishing division. As you’ve said you need someone with a strong background in trade book sales. This is where
I’ve spent almost my entire career, so I’ve chalked up 18 years of experience exactly in this area. I believe that I know the right contacts, methods, principles, and successful management techniques as well as any person can in our industry.”
“You also need someone who can expand your book distribution channels. In my prior post, my innovative promotional ideas doubled, then tripled, the number of outlets selling our books. I’m confident I can do the same for you.”
“You need someone to give a new shot in the arm to your mail order sales, someone who knows how to sell in space and direct mail media. Here, too, I believe I have exactly the experience you need. In the last five years, I’ve increased our mail order book sales from $600,000 to $2,800,000, and now we’re the country’s second leading marketer of scientific and medical books by mail.” Etc., etc., etc.,
Every one of these selling “couplets” (his need matched by your qualifications) is a touchdown that runs up your score. IT is your best opportunity to outsell your competition.