Quality Assurance (QA) Courses

Quality Assurance (QA) is the process of making sure a product or service is of the highest quality and meets customer expectations. QA is important because it builds trust with customers and impacts a business's reputation. The International Standards Organization (ISO) established the requirements for meeting global QA expectations. To operate internationally, companies need to follow the ISO 9000 specifications and abide by established procedures that evaluate their goods and services. The manufacturing industry first introduced the Quality Assurance model to ensure they only distributed high-quality products. Since then, every sector has implemented QA to meet the same expectations that the manufacturing industry placed on itself.

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) both play a vital role in ensuring that products and services meet regulatory and customer standards. QA is a documented process that determines standards and evaluation criteria through every step of the creation process, from conception to distribution. Measures are taken at each stage of a product's development to ensure no defects will occur and that no potential quality issues are likely to arise. QC is the inspection phase of the greater QA process. At this stage, a Quality Control specialist scrutinizes, tests, and assesses products and services to determine if the product or service is fit for distribution. If QC determines that products aren't meeting the expected quality levels, it's usually up to the greater QA department to define the next steps. That may be redesigning the product, seeking out a different supplier, or taking any other actions the producers would need.

Quality Assurance (QA) requires highly-refined skills to ensure products meet company standards of excellence. Attention to detail is essential to a QA position. Getting the minor details correct the first time makes for a more efficient process. It's vital to have good problem-solving skills — a good mix of creative and logical thinking goes into effectively coming up with solutions to issues that can impact product quality. The ability to multi-task is crucial because QA rarely involves doing just one thing at a time. You need to quickly shift between tasks without negatively impacting the quality of your product. Working knowledge of the ISO 9000 standards is beneficial in securing a position in a company that trades internationally. Udemy offers a selection of courses that can teach you the various facets of Quality Assurance.