QA vs QE: Key Differences in Quality Practices

Quality is a key metric that determines how well products meet both functional and non-functional requirements. Two terms that are often used interchangeably in the quality domain are Quality Engineering (QE) and Quality Assurance (QA). While they both aim to ensure product excellence, they differ in scope, methodology, and execution.

In this comprehensive blog, we will explore the differences and similarities between Quality Engineering and Quality Assurance, their roles in various industries, and how they contribute to the overall success of a project or product.

Quality Assurance (QA) vs. Quality Engineering (QE): Key Activities

Quality Assurance (QA) focuses on ensuring a product meets quality standards through testing and process validation, typically towards the end of development. It is a reactive approach that detects and fixes defects.

QA Activities Include:

• Process definition and documentation
• Regular audits and assessments
• Risk management and mitigation
• Continuous monitoring and feedback
• Ensuring compliance with industry regulations and standards
• Conducting training and awareness programs for teams

Quality Engineering (QE), on the other hand, is a proactive discipline that integrates quality throughout the product life cycle, optimizing processes and preventing defects early on. QE works across teams to improve systems, while QA validates the final product. Both are essential for delivering high-quality products.

QE Activities Include:

• Design for Testability (DFT) and Design for Quality (DFQ)
• Test automation and continuous testing
• Performance engineering
• Root cause analysis and defect tracking
• Implementing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines
• Writing and maintaining test scripts
• Integration of automated testing in development environments
• Statistical process control (SPC) and quality metrics analysis

Read More: QA System: The Key to Delivering High-Quality Software

Key Differences Between Quality Assurance and Quality Engineering

Here are the key differences between Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Engineering (QE):

Testing Strategies in Quality Assurance (QA)

Manual Testing

Manual Testing involves human testers executing test cases without automation tools. It's especially useful for exploratory testing, where testers use creativity to find issues that structured tests might miss. It’s also critical for usability testing, where the user experience is assessed. Although time-consuming, manual testing is essential for areas where automation isn’t feasible, like assessing user interface functionality. Additionally, regression testing ensures new changes don’t break existing functionality.

Automated Testing

Automated Testing improves efficiency by using specialized tools for repetitive tasks. It’s essential for unit tests (verifying individual components) and integration tests (ensuring system modules work together). Automated tests can be run frequently for smoke testing (checking basic stability) and regression testing (ensuring no new issues are introduced). Automated tests are also key for performance testing, simulating heavy loads to assess scalability.

Functional Testing

Functional Testing evaluates whether the software meets defined specifications. It includes black-box testing, where the tester focuses on inputs and outputs, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT), where end users confirm the system meets business requirements. System testing ensures the software works as a whole, with all components interacting correctly.

Non-Functional Testing

Non-Functional Testing covers attributes like performance, security, and usability. Performance testing checks how the application performs under load (e.g., load testing and stress testing). Security testing identifies vulnerabilities like SQL injection and unauthorized access. Usability testing ensures the software is intuitive and user-friendly, while compatibility testing verifies it works across different environments (browsers, OS, devices).

Exploratory Testing

Exploratory Testing allows testers to explore the software in an unscripted way. This method is effective for finding edge cases and defects that structured tests might miss. Testers use their creativity to identify potential problems early in the development cycle.

Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a methodology where tests are written before the code. This ensures the software meets test criteria from the start, preventing defects. TDD leads to cleaner, more reliable code by addressing edge cases and potential errors early in development.

Acceptance Testing

Acceptance Testing verifies if the system meets business requirements and is ready for release. This includes alpha testing (done by internal teams) and beta testing (done by external users). Both types ensure the software delivers the expected value to customers.

Static Testing

Static Testing assesses software quality without executing it. This can include reviewing code, requirements, or design documents to identify potential issues early. Techniques like code reviews and walkthroughs help spot errors before development progresses further.

Continuous Testing

Continuous Testing integrates testing throughout the development lifecycle, especially within CI/CD pipelines. It emphasizes running automated tests with every code change, providing real-time feedback to developers. This helps identify defects early, speeding up development and ensuring new code doesn’t break existing functionality.

Risk-Based Testing

Risk-Based Testing prioritizes testing based on the potential risk and impact of defects. Critical or unstable areas of the software are tested first, ensuring the most important parts receive thorough attention. This approach helps allocate resources efficiently and cover high-priority areas.

These strategies help QA teams ensure software quality, focusing on detecting and addressing issues at every stage of development.

Also Read: Quality Assurance Testing: Proven Methods and Best Practices for Software Excellence

Testing Strategies in Quality Engineering (QE)

The testing strategies in QE extend beyond traditional Quality Assurance (QA) and focus on improving processes, enhancing collaboration, and automating testing to reduce manual effort. Below are key testing strategies typically used in Quality Engineering.

Shift-Left Testing

One of the cornerstone practices of Shift-Left Testing in QE is to move testing activities earlier in the software development lifecycle. The goal is to identify and address defects as early as possible, preventing issues from escalating into larger, more costly problems down the line.

This strategy often involves Test-Driven Development (TDD), where tests are written before the code. By writing tests prior to development, teams ensure that every piece of code meets predefined test criteria. Shift-left testing also emphasizes close collaboration between developers, testers, and other stakeholders during the requirements gathering and design phases. Early involvement of testers helps to create more testable requirements and ensures that testing begins as soon as development starts.

Test Automation

In Quality Engineering, test automation plays a significant role in increasing the efficiency, consistency, and coverage of testing efforts. Automated testing is particularly valuable in environments with frequent code changes, such as Agile and DevOps.

Automated tests can be run repeatedly, speeding up regression tests, and ensuring that new changes don’t introduce defects into previously working code. Common types of automated tests include unit testing, integration testing, and performance testing.

Automation helps teams achieve continuous feedback by enabling Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipelines, where tests are automatically executed every time new code is committed, leading to early defect detection and faster delivery cycles.

Continuous Testing and Feedback

Continuous Testing is an essential strategy in Quality Engineering, particularly in Agile and DevOps practices, where code is frequently integrated and deployed. Continuous testing ensures that automated tests run continuously throughout the software development lifecycle, providing fast feedback to developers.

It helps ensure that every code change is validated before it moves to the next stage in the pipeline. In QE, continuous testing is tightly integrated into the CI/CD pipeline, with tests running automatically each time the code is pushed to the repository. This enables teams to quickly detect and fix defects before they reach production, allowing for faster release cycles while maintaining high-quality standards.

Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is a core practice in Quality Engineering, where developers write tests before they write the actual code. The tests define the expected behavior of a feature or component, and only once the test passes is the code considered complete.

This strategy ensures that developers write code with quality in mind, preventing defects from being introduced in the first place. TDD promotes a high degree of code coverage and creates a safety net for future changes, making it easier to refactor code with confidence. It also facilitates collaboration between developers and testers, as the tests provide a shared understanding of the desired functionality.

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) extends the concept of TDD by emphasizing collaboration among developers, testers, and business stakeholders. BDD uses natural language constructs to define the expected behavior of the system, making it accessible to non-technical team members.

In this strategy, business analysts, developers, and testers collaborate to write Gherkin-style acceptance criteria in the form of Given-When-Then scenarios. These scenarios describe how the system should behave in different situations, providing a shared understanding of the requirements.

BDD helps to ensure that the software meets business expectations and encourages communication between cross-functional teams.

Risk-Based Testing

In Risk-Based Testing, the focus is on prioritizing testing efforts based on the risk associated with different features or areas of the software. Teams assess the potential impact of defects in different areas and allocate testing resources accordingly.

High-risk components, such as core functionality, security features, or areas that have undergone recent changes, are tested more thoroughly than lower-risk areas. This approach helps ensure that the most critical parts of the application are tested extensively, while less critical areas receive more limited attention.

Risk-based testing aligns well with Agile and DevOps practices by enabling teams to adjust their testing focus based on evolving priorities and changes in the software.

Exploratory Testing

Exploratory Testing is an approach where testers actively explore the software without predefined test cases, using their intuition, knowledge, and creativity to identify potential defects. In QE, exploratory testing complements other structured testing strategies by uncovering defects that may not be easily captured through automated or scripted tests.

Testers are encouraged to investigate edge cases, unusual user interactions, and areas of the software that may not be fully covered by test scenarios. This approach is valuable in early stages of development and in areas where automated tests may not be practical.

Exploratory testing also helps teams assess the overall usability and user experience of the product.

Performance and Load Testing

Performance and Load Testing are crucial strategies in Quality Engineering to ensure that the software performs well under varying conditions and can handle the expected load. These types of testing assess the responsiveness, scalability, and stability of the application under different usage patterns.

In QE, performance testing is integrated into the development lifecycle early on, rather than waiting until after the software is fully developed. Teams use load testing to simulate real-world traffic and determine how the system behaves under heavy use, and stress testing to identify the system's breaking points.

Early detection of performance bottlenecks allows teams to optimize the software before it reaches production.

Security Testing

In Quality Engineering, Security Testing is an integral part of the overall strategy to ensure that the software is free from vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious users. Security tests focus on areas such as authentication, data protection, and authorization.

By integrating security testing into the development process, QE teams can identify and mitigate vulnerabilities early, ensuring that security is not an afterthought. Techniques like penetration testing, static code analysis, and security scanning are used to identify potential threats and weaknesses in the system.

Security testing aligns well with the overall focus of QE on defect prevention and continuous improvement.

Shift-Right Testing

While Shift-Left Testing emphasizes early defect detection, Shift-Right Testing extends testing into the post-production phase. In QE, shift-right practices focus on monitoring and validating software in production environments, ensuring that the software continues to meet quality standards after deployment.

Canary testing, A/B testing, and feature flagging are commonly used techniques to release new features to a small subset of users before a full rollout, reducing the risk of widespread issues.

Continuous monitoring tools track the software’s performance, user experience, and potential errors, providing real-time feedback to teams and helping them quickly address any post-release defects.

How QA and QE Work Together

In an ideal scenario, QA and QE should work together harmoniously to ensure the highest level of product quality. While QA provides the structure, standards, and processes to manage and monitor quality, QE provides the technical expertise, tools, and methodologies to continuously improve the product’s quality throughout its lifecycle.

How QA and QE Collaborate Effectively

• QA defines standards and guidelines: QA creates and enforces the frameworks and standards (such as coding standards, testing protocols, and compliance requirements) that ensure a consistent level of quality.
• QE automates testing and continuous integration: QE can automate the testing process, integrating it into the continuous integration pipeline so that quality checks happen automatically and in real-time.
• QA provides oversight and feedback: QA ensures that the entire team is following the processes and guidelines while providing oversight and feedback to ensure alignment with the defined standards.
• QE identifies and fixes quality issues early: QE proactively identifies areas where automation, process optimization, or tool integration can prevent defects from occurring or being detected later in the lifecycle.

By working together, QA and QE can help create an environment where quality is consistently improved and defects are minimized.

The distinction between Quality Engineering (QE) and Quality Assurance (QA) lies in their focus and methodology. While QA focuses on creating and enforcing processes that prevent defects, QE is more technical, focusing on designing solutions and tools to build quality into the product from the ground up.

QA provides the structure and processes, while QE builds the technical infrastructure and automation to ensure quality at every step of the product’s lifecycle. Together, they form a powerful synergy that ensures that products are delivered on time, meet customer expectations, and comply with industry standards.

Ensure Quality at Every Stage with AMREP Mexico

At AMREP Mexico, we are committed to integrating both QA and QE best practices to help our clients build robust, reliable, and high-performance solutions. By adopting a comprehensive quality strategy, we ensure that your products are optimized for success at every stage of development.

If you're interested in hiring quality engineers in Mexico, we can connect you with skilled professionals who specialize in driving excellence in every phase of your project. Partner with AMREP Mexico, where quality is engineered from the ground up and is central to everything we do.

Reach out today to learn how we can help elevate the quality of your next project!