what is quality assurance?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Quality assurance (QA) is the activity of providing evidence needed to establish confidence among all concerned, that quality-related activities are being performed effectively. All those planned or systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a product or service will satisfy given requirements for quality.

For products, quality assurance is a part and consistent pair of quality management offering supposedly fact-based external confidence to customers and other stakeholders that a product meets needs, expectations, and other requirements. QA claims to assure the existence and effectiveness of procedures that attempt to make sure - in advance - that the expected levels of quality will be reached.

QA covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing to documentation. It introduced the sayings "fit for purpose" and "do it right the first time". It includes the regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production, and inspection processes.

The term Quality Assurance, as used in the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulation 10 CFR Part 50, Appendix B, comprises all those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a structure, system, or component will perform satisfactorily in service. Quality assurance includes quality control, which comprises those quality assurance actions related to the physical characteristics of a material, structure, component, or system which provide a means to control the quality of the material, structure, component, or system to predetermined requirements.

One of the most widely used paradigms for QA management is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach, also known as the Shewhart cycle.

Some academics claim that Quality Assurance, in other than restricted technical domains, is a counter-productive and damaging practice. Thus Prof. Bruce Charlton writes that "Quality Assurance ... does not have anything directly to do with assuring 'quality' in the real-world sense synonymous with 'excellence' - rather QA is a technical managerial term for auditing concentrated upon systems and processes rather than outcomes .... QA auditing has profoundly re-shaped the perception of what constitutes a proper governance structure for an organization. Proper practice has been re-defined as auditable practice; and organizations ... whose procedures are insusceptible to audit are regarded as unacceptable. Such organizations are stigmatized as unaccountable - implying irresponsible - and lacking in transparency - implying deliberately secretive. The present climate of uncritical advocacy misses the obvious point that audit of processes is merely a crude managerial technique, and far from being a panacea, Quality Assurance has a very poor track record within the UK public sector."

Answer 3

The study & application of techniques to improve processes.
The end-result (hopefully) being quality product manufacture.

Answer 4

nothing to do with college, as far as i know.

QA - QC

quality control