Software Quality Assurance (QA) is the set of planned and systematic activities to ensure that a product or service meets defined requirements. QA is not only about finding defects—it focuses on preventing them by improving processes.
Why does it matter? Quality software increases user satisfaction, strengthens brand trust, and reduces long-term maintenance costs. When testing is integrated early, critical bugs in production drop significantly.
In modern teams, QA engineers work alongside developers as an integral part of continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) pipelines.