This is one of the most frequently asked questions, with many different versions of the definition.
Software Quality Control (SQC) is the set of procedures used by an organization to ensure that a software product will meet its quality goals at the best value to the customer and to continually improve the organization’s ability to produce software products in the future. [Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_quality_control]
Software quality assurance (SQA) consists of a means of monitoring the software engineering processes and methods used to ensure quality. The methods by which this is accomplished are many and varied and may include ensuring conformance to one or more standards, such as ISO 9000, or a model such as CMMI. [Source; Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_quality_assurance]
“Product” and “Process” are the keywords that distinguish the differences between QA and QC.
Quality Control is “Product-oriented”, it focuses on the “product” itself, whether it meets its quality goals and user requirements. For example, Testing and Review fall into this category.
Quality Assurance is “Process-oriented”; focuses on whether the process in a project conforms to organizational standards and methodologies, as defined. Since QA focuses more on the whole project, hence it can have supervision on quality control.
