In production system, Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC), do they always mean the same thing?
No. The difference is important. A quality control program is applied to assembly-line manufacturing. The point is that it's impossible (or prohibitively expensive) to make sure that every single widget (a slang word for any product that is fairly complicated and requires a complicated manufacturing process) that rolls off the assembly line is perfect. A quality control program is established that balances the financial loss incurred by defective widgets, which have to be thrown in the trash, against the cost of improving the manufacturing process in order to reduce the number of defective widgets. Typically, QA procedures are applied to the finished product itself, simply making sure that the defective widgets are identified and thrown out (perhaps with some of their components salvaged for re-use), so they do not end up being delivered to the customers. A quality assurance program, on the other hand, can also be applied to an assembly line, but it is also used for non-manufacturing processes such as the development of software. The goal of QA is to minimize the number of defective widgets by improving the process that builds them. This is obviously of critical importance in software development, because every software project only creates one "widget" -- one program, one module, one database, etc. If that one widget is defective, there is no second widget coming off the assembly line behind it. It must be repaired before the customer will take delivery. To continue the manufacturing comparison, if the widget is defective, the assembly line must be run backward until the point in the process at which the defect was created is identified. Then the process must be repaired, and then the assembly line must be run forward again, in the hope that this time the widget will be perfect. This is why software projects are so expensive, why delivery is almost always late, and why software almost never does everything it's supposed to do, correctly. By applying the methods of QA to software development, the goal is to reduce the cost. Unfortunately, improving the process invariably makes it take much longer. Another software company will promise to deliver the product sooner (and cheaper), and the customer may be fooled into buying from that supplier, only to discover that their product is defective. The primary cause of software product failure is defective requirements. (This is my industry so I know all of its secrets. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!)The customer doesn't really know exactly what he wants, so the specifications he gives to the programmers are wrong. I have seen many projects in which the requirements actually conflicted with each other, so it was utterly impossible to deliver both of them. Most organizations simply don't understand the importance of complete, accurate requirements, and the software manufacturers (including I.T. staff internal to the organization) don't have enough power (or perhaps they're not good communicators) to insist that the customer must spend more time on the requirements. This is a formula for failure that I have seen many times in my I.T. career.
QC is to prevent the roll-out of defective product from line, QA encompasses incoming and outgoing quality control, it is the total quality management (TQM).
Interestingly, the albatross was originally regarded as an omen of good luck by sailors. The name is probably a mangled version of the Spanish word alcatraz, "pelican," probably of Arabic origin since the Moors ruled Iberia for many years. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of England's most beloved poets and a leader of the Romantic movement, wrote the poem, "The Rime ("rhyme" in modern spelling) of the Ancient Mariner," in 1798. In the story, a sailor kills an albatross, which, according to superstition, would have brought bad luck to the ship and its crew. The captain required him to hang the bird's corpse around his neck, so the fates would understand that the killing was the work of just one man, not the entire ship. Since then, the phrase "wear an albatross around your neck" has meant "tell the world that you did something really bad and deserve to be punished, so we won't take any of the blame ourselves." Eventually, the word "albatross" by itself came to have that meaning.
Wallop is slang for punch (as in, to hit something). To pack a wallop means you have a forceful punching power. Saying an item packs a wallop is to imply it's quite powerful.
I believe "uphill battle" goes back to medieval times when soldiers would fight with swords. Those fighting on the higher ground would have an easier time than those on the lower ground. To fight an uphill battle is to struggle and have a hard time achieving victory. So yeah, I guess difficult condition could be a way of defining it. A shoestring budget is a small budget, yes. I'm not really sure where the expression comes from, though.
The word "wallop" comes from the same source as "gallop," a French word that was assimilated by the people of England when it was ruled by the Norman French for a few centuries after 1066. In this context, "shoestring" originally meant "a small amount of money." The source of that idiom has not been identified; I can't even find a source to tell us when it first came into use.
I assume you're referring to "animosity." Animosity is not quite as strong as hatred, but it does mean strong dislike. The essence of it is animosity or ill will, meaning that you express your dislike in your words and actions, such as not talking to the person, telling other people about his flaws, or interfering with his ability to complete a project. No. Like virtually all words ending in -ity, it comes from Latin, via French animosité. Latin animositatis is derived from animus, which means soul, spirit, courage, mind, life, desire, and several other things.
Saint is not a native speaker of English. He comes here to learn to understand our language. Please do not respond to him in wisecracks. That will only confuse him. The slang term "golden parachute" has been in use in corporate circles for about 30 years. The dictionary definition is: "An employment contract or agreement guaranteeing substantial severance pay and/or other financial benefits to a key executive of a company, in case the company is subsequently sold, merged or taken over, causing the loss of his job. For example, the job may no longer exist; or an executive in the parent company or one of the merged companies has the same job and he is chosen to keep it. Thanks, Fraggle Rocker Moderator
Is he not referring to "vendetta"? Vendetta is a feud between two parties; you can say you have a vendetta against someone if you feel they have done something that you need to seek revenge for. "His vendetta against the Bob Smith led him to scratch Bob's car". The word "vendetta" originally comes from Italian, I believe, but has its roots in the Latin "vindicta" meaning revenge, vengeance. It's the same origin as for words such as "vengeance", "vindictive" etc.
I think nobody will speak vendetta in daily conversation. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Much better response than Daecon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatross_(metaphor) You probably read the same literature in HS that I did, back in the day.
