Quality Assurance and Quality Control

• Quality Assurance and Quality Control ensure products meet requirements and standards across industries.
• Quality Assurance (QA) aims to prevent defects, while Quality Control (QC) focuses on identifying them.
• Defect Management involves identifying, documenting, prioritizing, and resolving defects.
• Testing methods are used to detect defects and ensure proper software function.

Quality Assurance (QA)

• QA is a proactive process focused on preventing defects from occurring.
• It establishes and follows standards, procedures, and guidelines throughout development.
• Process checklists, documentation templates, project audits, and training programs are QA activities.
• QA aims to build quality into the product from the start.
• QA focuses on the entire system to improve the development process.

Quality Control (QC)

• QC is a reactive process aimed at identifying defects after product development.
• Inspecting, testing, and evaluating the product determines if requirements are met.
• Unit, integration, system, and acceptance testing are QC activities.
• QC aims to detect and correct defects before product release.
• QC concentrates on the product itself to find specific issues.

Differences Between QA and QC

• QA is process-oriented, while QC is product-oriented.
• QA focuses on preventing defects, while QC focuses on detecting them.
• QA is a proactive approach, while QC is a reactive approach.
• QA aims to improve the development process; QC aims to improve product quality.

Defect Management

• Defect Management systematically identifies, documents, prioritizes, and resolves defects.
• Defect management lifecycle stages include identification, reporting, prioritization, assignment, resolution, and closure.
• Effective defect management ensures timely and efficient resolution, minimizing impact on product quality.

Defect Reporting

• Defect reports should be clear, concise, and comprehensive.
• Key elements of a defect report include defect ID, summary, description, environment, severity, priority, and attachments.

Defect Prioritization

• Defect prioritization assigns importance levels based on impact and severity.
• Prioritization ensures critical defects are addressed first.
• Common prioritization levels include critical, high, medium, and low.

Testing Methods

• Testing methods evaluate software quality by identifying defects.
• Various testing methods serve different purposes throughout development.
• Common testing methods include unit, integration, system, and acceptance testing.
• Black box and white box testing are also common methodologies.
• Additional methods are regression, performance, security, and usability testing.

Unit Testing

• Unit Testing involves testing individual components of software in isolation.
• The goal is to verify that each unit functions correctly.
• Unit tests are written and executed frequently by developers.
• JUnit, NUnit, and pytest automate unit testing and generate reports.

Integration Testing

• Integration Testing tests the interaction between different software components.
• It verifies that units work together correctly and data is passed correctly.
• Integration testing can be incremental, using top-down, bottom-up, or big-bang integration.

System Testing

• System Testing tests the entire system to ensure it meets requirements.
• The goal is to verify all components work together in a real-world environment.
• A testing team typically performs system testing after integration testing.
• Functional, performance, security, and usability testing are types of system testing.

Acceptance Testing

• Acceptance Testing tests software from the end-user perspective.
• It verifies the software is fit for purpose and usable in a production environment.
• End-users or stakeholders perform acceptance testing after system testing.
• User acceptance testing (UAT), business acceptance testing (BAT), and operational acceptance testing (OAT) are types of acceptance testing.

Black Box Testing

• Black Box Testing tests software without knowledge of its internal structure or code.
• Testers focus on inputs and outputs, verifying function based on requirements.
• Equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, and decision table testing are black box testing techniques.

White Box Testing

• White Box Testing tests software with knowledge of its internal structure or code.
• Testers examine code to identify defects and verify code path execution.
• Statement coverage, branch coverage, and path coverage are white box testing techniques.

Regression Testing

• Regression Testing retests software after changes to ensure new defects haven't been introduced and existing functionality works.
• It is performed after bug fixes, enhancements, or code refactoring.
• Selenium, TestComplete, and QTP can automate regression testing.

Performance Testing

• Performance Testing evaluates software performance under different conditions.
• The goal is to identify bottlenecks and ensure the software handles the expected workload.
• Load testing, stress testing, and endurance testing are types of performance testing.

Security Testing

• Security Testing identifies vulnerabilities and ensures protection against unauthorized access and attacks.
• The goal is to prevent security breaches and protect sensitive data.
• Penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and code review are security testing techniques.

Usability Testing

• Usability Testing evaluates software ease of use and user-friendliness.
• The goal is to identify usability issues and ensure the software is intuitive.
• User interviews, focus groups, and usability labs are usability testing techniques.