QUALITY

The common usage of the term quality refers to a number of things: principally it means the absence of defects, but more importantly, a fitness for a desired purpose; something imbued with quality does what we want it to do. A thing can be free from defects, but if it does not do what we need it to do, it is just as useless as a defective product.

The ultimate goal of testing is to assess the quality of the end product, and in doing so, to assess the quality of the components that comprise the product and the architecture that gives form to these components . By means of this assessment, we need to ensure that the product satisfies or exceeds a defined and accepted set of requirements, as assessed by defined and accepted measures and criteria.

Quality cannot be assessed completely in isolation; software is developed by organizations using engineering processes. A poor process, or one that is not followed, can be a significant cause of poor quality. As a result, quality assessments often consider process quality and organizational factors as well as direct product quality.

Product Quality Ownership

Producing a quality product is the responsibility of every member of the project team; it is not possible for a "quality assurance" organization to ensure quality. If quality is not designed and built into the product from the start, it will not be possible for it to be "added later" through an aggressive quality-assurance effort.

The role of testing is not to assure quality , but to assess it, and to provide timely feedback so that quality issues can be resolved in a timely and cost-effective manner. The role of the tester is to assess quality and to provide feedback, while the role of the project team is to produce artifacts or work products that meet requirements and quality expectations.