ABSTRACT
The quality assurance (QA) movement, which had its origins in W. Edwards Deming’s principles of quality, seeks to prevent rather than correct defects. It has as one of its precepts that quality assurance should be an integral part of the entire process, not a step that is tacked on at the end. The rationale for this is simple: the earlier that a problem is found and corrected, the less costly that problem becomes.
