Quality Assurance (QA)
Definition
The management system that ensures QC actually happens and stays effective over time: written SOPs, training and competence records, internal audits, document control, calibration schedules and the corrective-action loop. QA is what you set up once and maintain forever.
- Scope
- System-wide and preventive. Covers policies, training, document control, and audits.
- Key activities
- Written SOPs, competence records, internal audits, calibration scheduling, and corrective-action loops.
Common questions
What is the difference between QA and QC in a forensic lab?+
Quality control (QC) is the day-to-day testing and checks you do to catch problems. Quality assurance (QA) is the system you build to make sure QC actually happens and keeps working. QA includes written procedures, training records, calibration schedules, and audits.
Is QA something you do once and forget?+
No. QA is preventive and ongoing. You set up the written policies, training, and document control once, but you maintain them forever through internal audits and corrective actions when something breaks.
What does a QA system actually look for?+
QA monitors whether the lab meets its quality requirements through planned, systematic activities. It checks that people are trained, procedures are written and followed, equipment is calibrated on schedule, and problems are fixed when they happen.
Related terms
- ISO/IEC 17025:2017
- The international standard specifying general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. Covers management (document control, non-conforming work, audits) and...
- NABL
- National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India. It is the sole accrediting...
- Quality Control (QC)
- The day-to-day activities that verify a single batch of results is reliable: method blanks, certified-reference-material runs, duplicate injections, spike recoveries and control-chart...
- Accreditation
- Formal recognition by a standards body (such as UKAS in the UK, A2LA in the US, or NABL in India) that a...
- Calibration
- A steganalysis technique that estimates the cover image statistics by cropping or decompressing and re-compressing the test image to produce a reference....
- Certified Reference Material (CRM)
- A sample with one or more analyte concentrations established by an accredited body and traceable to a national metrology institute. NIST SRM...
- ISO 9001
- The international standard for quality management systems published by the International Organization for Standardization. Certification means the organisation has documented and implemented...
- Measurement Uncertainty (MU)
- A quantified parameter associated with a result that characterises the dispersion of values reasonably attributable to the measurand. Estimated by the GUM...
- Proficiency Testing (PT)
- A quality assurance mechanism in which laboratories analyse blind samples distributed by an external scheme coordinator and have their results compared against...
- SWGDOC and Other SWGs
- Scientific Working Groups (SWGDOC for questioned documents, SWGDRUG for drugs, SWGSTAIN for bloodstain, SWGFEX for fire and explosion, SWGFAST for fingerprints) that...
- Traceability and Uncertainty
- Metrological traceability is an unbroken chain of calibrations linking a result to a stated reference (CRM, NPL India primary standard, NIST). Measurement...
- Validation
- The process of establishing through systematic testing that a method does what it claims to do, within defined conditions and with a...
Explained in these topics
- ISO 17025 and Quality Management in Forensic LaboratoriesThe management system that ensures QC actually happens and stays effective over time: written SOPs, training and competence records, internal audits, document...
- Quality Control Management in Forensic InstitutionsPlanned, systematic activities at the laboratory level to provide confidence that products or services satisfy quality requirements. QA is preventive and syste...