Quality Assurance in Requirements Management - Requirements Engineering and Management for Software Development Projects - page 90

Definitions cannot have vagueness that is open for misinterpretation. I offered
the below definition for quality in the topic ''Software Quality Assurance: Best
Practices, Tools and Techniques for Software Developers'' 1 thus:
Quality is an attribute of a product or service that is provided to consumers,
completely conforming to or exceeding the best of the available specifications for
that product or service. It includes making those specifications available to the end
user of the product or service.
The specifications that form the basis of the product or service being provided
might have been defined by a governmental body, an industry association, or a
standards body. Where such a definition is not available, the provider may define
such specifications.
This is a more comprehensive definition of the term ''quality''. It mandates the
provider to declare and conform to a set of applicable specifications. The speci-
fications have to be defined by a national or international or industry association or
a professional body. Only when such specifications are not available, the provider
is free to define a new set of specifications. It mandates that the specifications
cannot be secret or hidden from public view. It is also mandatory for the provider
to meet or exceed those specifications. This definition of quality defines the
minimum acceptable level for quality and that is to meet the specifications which
are publicly available.
Having understood the term ''quality'', we can now move forward to quality
assurance.
When manufacturing and services on commercial terms began, the quality
depended on the capability of the artisan providing them. It was person dependent.
But when production of large quantities of products began, an independent
inspection was introduced to ensure that all parts were indeed included on the
product. In due course, testing of the product was also introduced to ensure
functioning of the product. These two activities, namely, inspection and testing,
came to be referred together as ''quality control'' connoting the control of quality
of outgoing products or services.
Even though quality control did a great job in ensuring that manufacturing
activities build-in quality, the product failures still occurred due to poor specifi-
cation or design. Quality control could not ensure that the pre-shop-floor activities,
including product specifications and product design, are indeed building quality
into the product. This led to introduction of standards for specifications and design.
Verification and validation of specifications and design were started to ensure that
quality is built into the product right at the stages of product specification and
product design. Quality assurance includes all activities, that is, quality control
activities and standards that ensure that quality is built into a product or service.
Now we have to acknowledge one fact that quality control activities, while they
consume resources, do not help us build quality into the product. Therefore,
1 Software Quality Assurance: Best Practices, Tools and Techniques for Software Developers,
J.Ross Publishing, Inc, 2010.