How does Quality Assurance differ from Quality Control?

Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) serve different purposes within the context of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other fields. Understanding this distinction is essential for maintaining high data standards.

Quality Assurance is a proactive process focused on establishing the procedures and standards that ensure data quality throughout its lifecycle. It involves the development and application of systematic activities to ensure that a process is designed in such a way that it will produce results that meet quality criteria. QA is concerned with how processes are set up, the methodologies applied, and ensuring that workflows contribute to the overall quality goals before any data is produced.

On the other hand, Quality Control is more of a reactive process that involves verifying and checking the results of those processes and the final data outputs. QC typically includes various methods of quality checks and audits that aim to identify defects or errors within the end products. It assesses whether the data meets predefined standards and requirements.

Thus, the distinction in the correct answer highlights that QA is about the procedures and methods employed to ensure quality, while QC is about validating the data produced at the end of those processes. This reflects true practice in GIS and ensures continuous improvement of data quality through organized methodologies.