Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control
Quality control is a reactive process that focuses on identifying and resolving issues that arise in the final product after it has reached consumers. Quality assurance is a proactive process primarily concerned with ensuring quality requirements are met before the product or service is released to the public. Quality assurance teams focus more heavily on development processes. In contrast, quality control activities center on the product. Since software development is an iterative process wherein products are consistently revised, updated, and patched, quality assurance teams working with software products may require reactive processes or quality control methods as well.