Software Quality Control Explained

Do you remember those times when customers called up and complained that their having problems with the software because it is not working as expected or too slow. And whether you like it or not, the list will never end.  That is why Quality Control (also known as Quality Assurance) is an essential process for most of the software companies.

So what is Quality Control? What are the objectives?

Let’s just say Quality Control is like a person that checks on your stuff to make sure it is working except that this person checks in different stages.  A better way of define it, is the set of procedures used by organizations to ensure its software products will meet the expectations of the end-users, and to provide feedback to improve the software quality in the future.  A good Quality Control will prevent unnecessary support calls by keeping defect rates to the minimum.

The Objectives of QC

The Stages of Software Quality Control

1. Basic Requirement Testing – ensuring the software works as expected.
2. Performance Testing – does the software performs at a reasonable speed?  Performance may be an indicator to poor programming codes or database that is not optimized or tuned.
3. Security Testing – does the software allow information to be retrieved within the scope or range? This is due to program did not (or incorrectly) implementing certain logics.

Throughout these stages, the Quality Control, programmers and the support team will be collaborating and have a thorough understanding about the software. This means the support team will be aware of changes and document the enhancements.