Quality Assurance or QA, refers to a program of systematic monitoring and evaluation of different aspects of a project, service or facility to ensure that quality standards are being met.
It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the program sponsor. QA can not absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, unfortunately, but makes this more likely. Quality assurance is an area in organizations designed to deal with the audits of procedures, activities and agreements. The audits should follow a regimented script by quality project plan. Quality assurance is embedded in the processes of implementation.
Two key principles characterize quality assurance: "fit for purpose" (the product should be suitable for the intended purpose) and "the first" (mistakes should be eliminated). Quality assurance includes quality control of raw materials, assemblies, products and components, services related to production and management, production and inspection processes.
It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the intended users, clients or customers, not by society in general: it is not the same as "expensive" or "high quality". Even products with low prices can be considered quality items if meet a market need.
Workflow is the sequence of steps necessary so that one can achieve the automation of business processes, according to a set of defined rules, involving the notion of processes, allowing them to be transferred from one person to another according to some rules. According to WfMC (Workflow Management Coalition) is the automation of a business process, in whole or in parts, where documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant to another for execution of an action, according to a set of rules procedures. The automation of a business process identifies the various activities of the process, rules of procedure and associated data control to manage workflow during the activation process.
Many individual instances are part of the same process. All must work harmoniously to become operational, each associated with a specific set of relevant data.
A simple distinction between the types of workflow is as follows:
