Quality Assurance – In fact, Quality Assurance (QA) is a job that is not only centered in a company, but also in the realm of education, namely in schools to the realm of health, namely in hospitals. But in this article, we will discuss what QA is in a company.
Basically, the existence of Quality Assurance (QA) will “go” hand in hand with Quality Control (QC) which both play an important role in the manufacture and development of a product. The product doesn’t have to be physical, you know, but can also be a digital product, for example a software. So, what is Quality Assurance (QA)?
What are the duties and responsibilities of a QA? What skills are needed so that Sinaumed’s can become a Quality Assurance (QA)? How is it different from Quality Control (QC)? So, so that Sinaumed’s understands these things, let’s look at the following review!
What is Quality Assurance?
The definition of QA in language is “quality assurance” or quality assurance. Basically, Quality Assurance (QA) is a form of guarantee that is used to provide security and trust in a product. Therefore, in the process, this QA will ensure whether the quality requirements of a product have been met or not. Usually, this Quality Assurance (QA) process covers the planning and supervision of activities in the product manufacturing process.
The existence of this QA plays an important role in the production of a product, especially in the midst of industrial developments like today. Just a little trivia, the existence of QA is expected to emerge during the Total Quality Control (TQC) era initiated by America and Europe at that time. If you talk about a product, you will definitely not be separated from its quality.
Yep, the assessment of the high or low quality of a product cannot be determined by the producer as the maker of the goods, but will be focused on the consumer’s assessment as the user of the product. What’s more, these consumers have different backgrounds, both in the realm of socio-economic conditions to their level of education. Therefore, product quality will be very relative.
Unfortunately, the existence of QA is often equated with Quality Control (QC). In fact, the two are clearly different, you know, even though in the process they will alternate. This QA focuses on checking whether the method of Quality Control (QC) is running according to plan or not. Quality Assurance (QA) is also the one who can decide whether the product can continue its production process, or be repaired, or even discontinued for free.
As the name implies, QA will focus on product quality. Why so? Because product quality can directly affect the credibility of the company so that it can improve work processes to consumer confidence.
In the work process, the QA will closely monitor the flow of product manufacturing, from the planning stage to testing. This is done so that later there will be no rework which will actually be a waste of time and money. In addition, this monitoring is also carried out to avoid complaints from consumers regarding damaged or defective products.
Career path
Even though it looks complicated, a Quality Assurance (QA) is required to be thorough, you know . That is why the career path of a QA will develop very widely, especially in a large company. Reporting from hashmicro.com , a QA can have a career path in the form of,
1. DevOps
DevOps is work in the form of optimizing the process for developing a product so that the product release process can be carried out quickly and optimally. Actually, DevOps work is almost the same as Quality Assurance (QA) because they both test products before they are released. It’s just that, this DevOps job has special expertise, namely mastering a programming language.
2. IT Management
IT Management is work in the form of planning, managing, organizing, and managing information technology resources based on company needs. The purpose of this information technology resource includes data, software, hardware, network, to data center facilities. Anything related to the use of technology. Later, the skills that have been taught in Quality Assurance (QA) can also be useful in this job, one of which is ensuring the quality of the software or application being created by the company.
3. Product Manager
Becoming a Product Manager requires that we have the ability to analyze, conduct audits, to provide solutions for a product (especially defective products). So, since a Quality Assurance (QA) is also required to have problem solving skills, the two jobs can be related to one another.
4. Customer Experience Leaders
Just a little trivia, a Quality Assurance (QA) does not only analyze product quality, but also must have knowledge of its consumers. In this regard, a Quality Assurance (QA) must focus on how consumers’ expectations of the product to be released.
Types of Quality Assurance
Even though they both analyze product quality before releasing it to consumers, the existence of Quality Assurance (QA) has several types based on the place and form of the product.
1. Hospitality Quality Assurance
As the name implies, Quality Assurance (QA) is a guarantee of quality for a product that has been offered by the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry is a business industry that prioritizes customer satisfaction, usually has a motto of being friendly, sincere and full of love. Example: hotels, inns, or places related to tourism.
2. Total Quality Assurance
This type of Quality Assurance (QA) is usually in a company, usually serving as a guarantor for quality or product quality as a whole. Assurance of product quality will be targeted in the short and long term.
3. Software Quality Assurance
As the name implies, Quality Assurance (QA) will act as a quality guarantor for a product produced by a technology company. Therefore, the resulting product is not in physical form, but in the form of software (software).
Quality Assurance Tasks
Indeed, in general, QA is tasked with guaranteeing the quality of a product that will be released to consumers. However, the flow of work will of course be complicated because you have to start with planning and end up verifying the quality of the production team. So, here is the flow of QA tasks in a company.
- Make a plan regarding the quality of the product that will be needed. Usually QA will work closely with the research team and marketing team.
- Monitor, analyze and test product samples until they are produced.
- Provide verification of how product quality is, then handed over to the production team.
- If there is a production process that does not meet the standards, Quality Assurance (QA) will provide corrective instructions.
- Look for repair solutions if problems are found during the production process.
- Doing product test documentation and included in the report.
- Creating a production process flow in the form of a report as a reference for making products in the future.
- Investigate consumer complaints if there are non-conformance problems with the product.
Skills Required To Become A Quality Assurance
If Sinaumed’s is interested in becoming a QA, don’t worry because currently there are many trainings both online and offline to become a QA. This profession is still very popular with many people, you know, apart from its wide career path, the salary is no joke. One of the skills that must be possessed by a QA is in the IT field. However, there are also other soft skills that must be mastered, namely in the form of:
- Strong research and analytical skills.
- Problem solving
- time management
- Understand market needs
- Critical thinking
- Good communication (oral and written)
- Able to work with a team (teamwork)
- Detailed, thorough, and disciplined
- Management product
- Understand the company’s quality standards
Difference between Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC)
| Quality Assurance (QA) | Quality Control (QC) |
| Responsible for ensuring that the quality requirements for a product are met. | Responsible for ensuring product quality is in accordance with product standards. |
| Usually in the form of planning and supervision of the activity of making these products. | Usually in the form of product quality checking process. |
| Focusing on standardizing a product so that production errors do not occur. | Focusing on correcting errors in a product, before it reaches consumers. |
| The aim is to carry out inspections on the product development process. | The goal is to test the process, but only in the final stages of product development. |
| Check in advance whether the product is in accordance with the size, model, and color set by the company standard. | Re-checking products that have been checked by QA, to avoid damaged goods. |
| Usually present and play many roles before the production process runs. | Usually present and play a role after the production process takes place. |
| The place of work is usually in an office or room to make plans, work procedures, determine product specifications, and more. | The place of work is usually in the warehouse or down directly to the factory to carry out inspections. |
| More process oriented. | More product oriented. |
| The way it works is to create a quality management system. | The way it works is to find the source of the problem and fix it with existing equipment, so that product quality is maintained. |
So, that’s a review of what Quality Assurance (QA) is and its career paths, tasks, soft skills needed, and the difference with Quality Control (QC). Is Sinaumed’s interested in being part of Quality Assurance (QA)?