The Information Technology (IT) world is characterized by its emphasis on promptness and efficiency, but as is the case with anything that is done hastily, maintaining a standard of quality is often quite a challenge. Quality control in IT is the process by which software or hardware products are kept at a certain caliber without decreasing the pace of production. This process places heavy emphasis on the end user of the final product and defines standards based on what the eventual consumers expect out of the goods. As different departments or manufacturing units collaborate to produce a product, quality control in IT is best implemented as a shared responsibility. When using these quality control techniques, any problems found are often treated at the root of the complication instead of through the symptoms.
The IT industry has become an extremely competitive sector, with hundreds of innovative, fresh companies being added to the fray every year. As a result, the general goal of quality control is to ensure customer satisfaction, and this is becoming increasingly relevant in IT. A quality control technician must often work backward, setting quality control standards based on user feedback. A good quality control protocol will be in sync with the concerns and suggestions that the end users of the product generate.
The traditional model of quality control places a department or unit at the end of the manufacturing cycle that verifies each product and certifies it as quality-checked. While this may be an efficient approach for an assembly line setup, products in the IT industry are usually the result of more collaborative, non-linear efforts. Quality control in IT, therefore, must be the responsibility of all units involved in the production of a product. For example, in the development of a piece of software, there may be a team that focuses on user interface design and another that focuses on the database functionality. Both teams must have quality control inbuilt in their development to ensure that the final product is bug-free and efficient.
Finally, when a complication is identified, quality control in IT spends a large amount of time probing for the root of the problem instead of developing quick-fix solutions. The symptoms of a complication may, at times, be the consequence of a single root problem, but in other cases, there can be contributing factors. Although it is often a tedious task to wade through hundreds of lines of code or examine the electrical connections in a piece of hardware, it is a small price to pay for the product’s durability in very competitive markets.
