ITM 8 QUALITY CONTROL MODULE 1

INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY CONTROL, QUALITY

ASSURANCE AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Quality
It refers to the sum of the attributes or properties that describe a product. These
are generally expressed in terms of specific product characteristics such as length, width,
color, specific gravity and the like. As to performance it would refer to the conformity to
performance standards. It may also define as totality of features and characteristics of a
product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy given needs. In the point of customer’s
perspective, it refers to the quality of a good or service in fitness for the use of it and as
well as for the satisfaction for the price of the product or service.

Quality Control
A crucial concept in total quality management is quality control- establishing the
observation techniques and activities that will fulfill an organization’s requirements for
quality. A system of maintaining standards in manufactured products by testing a sample
of the output against the specification.
Quality control processes can be used in all types of businesses, whether they are
product-based or service-based. Quality control is a key component of a well-run
business. A quality control program helps to ensure your small business is delivering a
consistent product, service and customer experience. Developing quality control
processes allows your business to operate without you, making it easier to expand into
new locations, delegate duties and even sell your business when the time comes. Business
growth requires careful attention to both dollars and people, and quality control helps
ensure you’re monitoring both. If your products or services are poor quality, you'll spend
a lot of time and money redoing them and cutting into your profit margins. If customers
aren't happy with the quality of your products and services, they'll stop doing business
with you. As word spreads, you’ll gain a reputation for poor quality, making it harder to
attract and keep customers and employees.

Quality control is a process that is used to ensure a certain level of quality in a

product or service. It might include whatever actions a business deems necessary to
provide for the control and verification of certain characteristics of a product or service.
Most often, it involves thoroughly examining and testing the quality of products or the
results of services. The basic goal of this process is to ensure that the products or services
that are provided meet specific requirements and characteristics, such as being
dependable, satisfactory, safe and fiscally sound.

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Basic examples of Quality Control:

Manufacturers of food products often have employees who test the finished
products for taste and other qualities. Clothing manufacturers have workers inspect
garments to ensure that they are properly sewn. Service-oriented companies often
have representatives who observe the services being performed or who do follow-up
checks to ensure that everything was done properly.

When does Quality Control occur?

1. When raw materials are received prior to entering production.
2. Whilst products are going through the production process.
3. When products are finished - inspection or testing takes place before products
are dispatched to customers.
4. Evaluating people. (Applicable with service-oriented companies.)

Needs for quality

1. Increased productivity
2. Reduced cost of repairs
3. Increases loyal customer’s base
4. Better profits

Quality Control through Production System

1. Inputs (raw materials) - acceptance tests quality of inputs
2. Conversion (production processes) - control charts monitoring quality of
partially completed products
3. Outputs (goods and services) - acceptance tests quality products

How to Establish Quality Control Processes

1. Set your quality standards.

Some industries, you may have to meet quality standards set by an outside body,
such as an industry association, the local health and safety inspector, or a government
regulatory agency. In others, there aren't any official quality standards, so you'll need
to set your own.
Each department of your business will have different quality control standards.
However, they must all be objectively measurable. For example, if you're developing
quality control standards for your customer service team, “sounding friendly on the
phone" is not a measurable standard. Measurable standards might include:

 Answering all customer calls by the second ring

 Responding to all customer service emails within four hours

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 Resolving customer service problems in five minutes or less

2. Decide which quality standards to focus on.

Of course, you want to ensure quality in all aspects of your operation. However,
begin by focusing on the most important measures — those that have the biggest effect
on your profits and your customer experience. This will enable you to get results quickly
and also keeps you and your team from becoming overwhelmed.

For instance, if you own a restaurant, keeping the restrooms clean is definitely
something to monitor in your quality control program—but not the most important thing.
Getting orders out to customers quickly and accurately is a more important standard
because it has a more direct effect on the quality of experience and customer satisfaction.

3. Create operational processes to deliver quality.

W. Edwards Deming, the founder of modern quality control, believed that well-designed
processes lead to high-quality products and services. If you create good processes,
continually measure the results of the processes, and work to consistently improve the
process, your product or service will get better and better.

Starting with your critical operations, create step-by-step processes that include
benchmarks. For instance, in a certain company's accounting department, operational
processes might require preparing and delivering invoices within 24 hours after a job is
completed or a product is delivered. In a restaurant, operational processes might require
servers to pick up food for delivery to the customer’s table within two minutes of it being
prepared.

4. Review your results.

Most business software, from financial and accounting apps to customer relationship
management or customer service tools, lets you customize the information you collect
and use dashboards to view it at a glance. Review your data regularly to see how well
your company is meeting its quality standards.

5. Get feedback.
Use measurable feedback from external sources, such as customer surveys, online ratings
and reviews and net promoter scores (NPS), to get a fuller picture of product and service
quality. Also, get regular feedback from employees. How well are the operational
processes working to deliver quality? How could they be improved?

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6. Make improvements.
Once you’re meeting your quality control standards, don't stop there. For example, if you
own a residential cleaning service business and you can cut the time it takes your maids
to clean a home by 25 percent, you’ll be able to handle 25 percent more business without
hiring any additional employees. That will really boost your bottom line.

No matter how well your processes are running, quality control shows there's always
room for improvement, and making small changes can pay off in big ways.

7 Basic Tools of Quality

 1. Check sheet - is a form used to collect data in real time at the location where
the data are generated. The data it captures can be quantitative or qualitative.
When the information is quantitative, the check sheet is sometimes called a
tally sheet.
 2. Control chart - also known as Shewhart charts or process- behavior charts, in
statistical process control are tools used to determine if a manufacturing or
business process is in a state of statistical control.
 3. Histogram - is a graphical representation showing a visual impression of
the distribution of data.
 4. Ishikawa Diagram - Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product
design and quality defect prevention, to identify potential factors causing an
overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation.
Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify these sources of
variation.
 5. Pareto Chart - is a type of chart that contains both bars and a line graph,
where individual values are represented in descending order by bars, and the
cumulative total is represented by the line.
 6. Scatter diagram - is a type of mathematical diagram using Cartesian
coordinates to display values for two variables for a set of data.
 7. Flow chart - is a type of diagram that represents an algorithm or process,
showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting
them with arrows

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

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The terms quality assurance, quality control and quality management are usually
used interchangeably. As a test manager or project manager, it is important to
understand the differences between these terminologies so that you know what exactly
are you talking about with your client and team members.

Quality Assurance

 Quality Assurance is the set of activities that determine the procedures and
standards to develop a product.

Quality Control

 Quality Control refers to the activities and techniques to verify that the developed
product is in conformance with the requirements. The ultimate output of both
processes is to deliver a quality product.

Quality Assurance Quality Control

Definition It is the implementation of
processes, methodologies
and standards that ensure
that the software developed
will be up to the required
quality standards
It is the set of activities
that are carried out to
verify the developed
product meets the
required standards

Target It focuses on the It focuses on the

improvement of process
and methodologies used
to develop product
Orientation It is process oriented
Nature of process is preventive process as
it establishes the
methods which prevent
the bugs.
Verification vs It is a verification
Validation activity that verifies
you are doing the right
thing in the right
manner
Who All the persons
improvement of the
product by identifying
the bugs and issues
It is product oriented
is corrective process as
it focuses on
identifying the bugs
and getting them fixed.
It is a validation
activity that validates
the product against the
requirements
It is the responsibility

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involved in the project of Quality Control

starting from the
requirement.
Tools and Techniques Defining Processes,
Quality Audit,
Selection of Tools,
Training.
Examples Examples of quality
assurance activities
include process
checklists, process
standards, process
documentation and
project audit.
inspector or the testing
team that finds the
issues.
Defining Processes,
Quality Audit,
Selection of Tools,
Training.
Examples of quality
control activities
include inspection,
deliverable peer
reviews and the
software testing
process.

Differences between Quality Assurance and Quality Control

“The primary difference between quality assurance vs quality control is that the quality
assurance activities are conducted during the software development. Quality control
activities are performed after the software has been developed.”

Quality Management is a much broader field that ensures the required level of quality is
achieved in software product. You can create a standard quality management approach
for your organization. It has four main sub processes: quality assurance, quality planning,
quality control and quality improvement.

 Quality Assurance

It is a planned and systematic way of creating an environment to assure that the software
product being developed meets the quality requirements. QA refers to the implementation
of well-defined standard practices and methods. It is a pro-active quality process. This
process is controlled and determined at managerial level. Quality assurance focuses on
the process checklists, process standards, project audits, methodology and procedures for
development.

It is a preventive process that aims at establishing the correct methodology and standards
to provide a quality conducive environment to the product being developed.

This is concerned with examining the process that leads to the end result. It ensure that a
product is manufactured in the right way, thereby reducing or eliminating potential
problems with the quality of the final product.
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 Quality Planning

In this sub process, quality assurance plan is created for a particular project. In the quality
assurance plan, organizational standards are selected which are applicable to a project. It
should also involve the plan for quality control.

Quality assurance planning details out what QC activities are performed, when the QC
activities are performed and who will perform those. It also contains details of resource
required, tools and techniques to be used for performing quality control.

 Quality Control

It is the set of activities that control the quality of product being developed by identifying
any bugs that might be present. This concerned with examining the product or service —
the end result.

Quality control process is a subset that falls under the quality assurance. It is a corrective
process. The task of actual testing is performed to find out and identify the bugs present
in the product. The bugs are raised to the developers, who then try to fix them.

After fixes, the product is verified again such that the functionalities and features are
working as required. QC process assures that that the product being developed is of the
required quality. Examples of quality control activities include inspection, deliverable
peer reviews and the software testing process.

 Quality Improvement

Quality improvement is a formal approach to analyze the feedback received from the
quality control team. In this process efforts are put systematically to identify any room of
improvements in the existing standards and procedures. The target is to improve the
process that establish the standards of quality in the organization

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control Tools and Techniques

 Quality Assurance Techniques

Defining Processes
The characteristic feature of software quality assurance is defining the organizational
processes and standards. The process shall serve as a guideline and improve over time.
It is critical that the organizational standards are defined by experts as it will lay the
foundation of quality assurance and assures development of reliable, quality products.

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The standard is harmonized with the software life cycle process and contains
requirements for initiating, planning, controlling and executing the Software Quality
Assurance.

Quality Audit
Quality audit is a quality assurance technique that examines the work products and
evaluate whether the software product has followed the standards, guidelines, regulations,
plans and procedures. It a systematic approach to examine all the required procedures and
standards were considered at the time of product development and testing.

Selection of Tools
1. Cost-Benefit Analysis
Cost benefit analysis is a systematic approach of evaluating an investment against
its expected benefits. It is used to determine whether the investment is feasible in
terms of labour, time and cost savings.

2. Cause and Effect Diagrams

Cause and Effect diagram is also known as ‘Fishbone’ or ‘Ishikawa’ diagram.
This technique uses brainstorming with mind mapping on a diagram and compels
you to think of all the possible causes to a problem. Once you have identified the
root cause, you will be able to find the right solution for it.

3. Control Charts
Control charts are used to analyze performance trends of process over time. It is
an important tool to determine if you need to make any fundamental changes to
the process and avoid specific problems.

4. Cost of Quality
There can be two types of cost of quality. The cost of poor quality affects the
internal and external costs resulting from failing to meet requirements. On the
other hand, the cost of good quality includes the prevention costs for investing in
services and appraisal of product.

5. Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the process of measuring performance to standard metrics and
practices.
6. Design of Experiments
It is systematic approach carried under controlled conditions to determine the
relationship between factors affecting a process and the output of the process. It is
used to manage process in order to analyze which input has the significant impact
and what steps can be taken to optimize the output.

Quality Culture should be established where everyone feels responsible for

maintaining the quality of product.

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Quality Control Techniques

 Quality Control Reviews

One of the popular techniques for quality control is the Quality Reviews. It is defined as:
“A process or meeting during which a software product is examined by project personnel,
managers, users, customers, user representatives, or other interested parties for comment
or approval.”
The product to be reviewed is an outcome of any software development activity. Quality
reviews are conducted to review the project plans, requirements documents, design
documents, quality assurance plan, test documents and code.
The people reviewing the software products give their feedback which is recorded and
passed to the concerned person for incorporating the changes.

Types of Reviews

1. Management Reviews
Management reviews are conducted by the upper management to see the amount of work
done and take required decisions accordingly.
2. Technical Reviews
Technical reviews are a less formal type of quality control review, which is led by trained
moderators. Technical reviews are conducted to establish consistency in the use of
technical concepts. It is conducted at an early stage to verify that the technical standards
and practices are used correctly. Any alternatives options for the product are also
evaluated in the technical quality control review.
3. Walk-through
A walk-through is a type of quality control review in which the author of product leads
the review session and presents his thought process to the entire team. The product to be
reviewed is thoroughly explained and the feedback is gathered from the audience.
Walk-throughs are usually conducted for the high-level documents such as specifications
documents, design documents. Walk-throughs are useful especially if the audience is
people who do not understand the software easily.
The main objectives of a walk-through are:
 Establish a common understanding and gain feedback from
stakeholders
 Discuss the validity of proposed solutions
 Evaluation of the software product

4. Inspection
Inspection is a formal review practice found in software testing practices to
identify defects and issues. It is a planned meeting in which roles are defined to each
participant. Inspection is a quality control process to check whether the software product
is in compliance with the required specifications and standards. Defects are logged if any
non-compliance is found.

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The main target of inspection is to find defects as early as possible. An estimate of re-
work effort is also taken as the output of this QC process. Inspection is conducted for
design documents, specification documents, test documents and the code.

5. Testing
Software testing techniques are a major tool of the quality control process. There
are several software testing techniques such as functional testing, black box testing,
usability testing, exploratory testing, compatibility testing, regression testing.
You may like to read further about software testing techniques:
 Guide to software testing process
 Advanced software testing techniques
 Recovery Testing
 Compatibility Testing
 Exploratory Testing

6. Recap
In this article, we’ve analyzed the big difference between quality assurance vs
quality control. Quality assurance is the implementation of standardized procedures
whereas quality control is following those procedures and techniques to assure the
deliverable is of required quality.
The processes of quality assurance, quality planning, quality control and quality
improvement make up the bigger process of Quality Management. We have also
discussed various tools and techniques used for establishing quality assurance and quality
control.

Some problems concerning Quality Control:

The inspection process does not add any "value". If there were any guarantees that
no defective output would be produced, then there would be no need for an inspection
process in the first place.
1. Inspection is costly, in terms of both tangible and intangible costs. For
example, materials, labor, time, employee morale, customer goodwill, lost sales.
2. It is sometimes done too late in the production process. This often results in
defective or non-acceptable goods actually being received by the customer
3. It is usually done by the wrong people - e.g. by a separate "quality control
inspection team" rather than by the workers themselves
4. Inspection is often not compatible with more modern production techniques
(e.g. "Just in Time Manufacturing") which do not allow time for much (if any)
inspection.
5. There is often disagreement as to what constitutes a "quality product". For
example, to meet quotas, inspectors may approve goods that don’t meet 100%

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conformance, giving the message to workers that it doesn’t matter if their work is a bit
sloppy. Or one quality control inspector may follow different procedures from another, or
use different measurements.

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