What do you mean by SQA in software engineering?

Answer 1

SQA simply refers to 'software quality assurance', however, quality assurance in software is something that is commonly misunderstood.

After software is built the code is generally tested for compliance to the requirements. The testers are usually separate resources who have been trained in software testing although developers or other people can be pressed into service for testing. Some organizations release software and let their customers do the testing :-)

Testing a software product gives you 'negative assurance', that is, you can state that you did not see anything that makes you believe that the software is incorrect. Negative assurance is not quality assurance.

Quality assurance is about positive assurance, it is making the statement 'we are certain that the software will behave properly in all circumstances.'

When a software product only performs testing then it is giving negative assurance, which is not quality assurance. A software product needs to be built by engineers who understand quality methodologies and practices for a software product to have positive assurance, which is quality assurance.

Answer 2

Testing is the process of executing a program with the purpose of finding errors.