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QA != Testing

Posted by timothy on from the spelled-differently dept.

gManZboy writes "Original author of Make and IBM Researcher, Stu Feldman has written an overview of what should be (but is sadly perhaps not) familiar ground to many Slashdotters: Quality Assurance. He argues that QA is not equivalent to 'testing', and also addresses the oft-experienced (apparent) conflict between QA-advocates and 'buisiness goals.'"

4 of 342 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Capability Maturity Model by John_Sauter · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    I mentioned it in another post, but my dad has a good web site that deals with quality issues (IE only, unfortunately). And, if you're looking to improve the quality of your software, his current contract is going to expire soon.
    With all due respect to your father (my son is also in the computer field), it is hard to take someone's claim to be a product quality expert seriously when his resume is posted to the Web in Microsoft Word format, and his web site only works with Microsoft Internet Explorer.
    John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)
  2. Re:Capability Maturity Model by Digital_Quartz · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Why? Would you expect the head of process quality of Ford to be able to spin off perfect HTML? And if so, why? It's not even related to his job.

    Believe me, I've encouraged him to redo his site, but he wrote it using some MS product, which generates IE-only HTML (likely a requirement of any MS software :) and he hasn't had time to rework it.

  3. As an ASP/SQL developer, how can I QA better? by Ride-My-Rocket · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    NOTE: This is a genuine question / request for advice. If you suggestions somehow suggest I can fix all of my problems by ramping up on an alternate skill set (Linux, Apache, PHP, Java, MySQL, PostgreSQL), I've already thought about it. However, I currently spend 4hrs a day commuting and I need to pay my bills, so that's not an option right now.

    I've been creating web apps for 6+ years using ASP, SQL and HTML. I'm fairly attentive to detail, try to make sure my code is legible / portable / documented in-line, etc. However, I'm currently working on a monstrous behemoth of an application and the need exists for some way to automatically test my app out. Can anybody suggest free or trial-based tools/software packages that can help me unit-test my code before I submit it to end users from second-stage testing?

  4. quality means conforming to specifications by John_Sauter · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I would expect the head of process quality at Ford to know that quality means that the product does what it is supposed to do; that is, it conforms to specifications. In addition, I would expect the head of process quality at Ford to know that the World Wide Web is not limited to Microsoft software, but in fact has a set of specifications of its own. Whenever I write or update a web site, I run each page through the W3C markup validation service. I recommend that site to your (and his) attention; it is a good starting point for learning how to write good HTML, and thus quality web sites.
    John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)