Quality engineering replaces quality assurance (QA) in manufacturing and software development (QE). What’s the difference between quality engineering and quality assurance, and why is it growing? Let’s start with the QA roles. QA is the most common tester title today. This engineer ensures product quality through testing and human and automated procedures. They also monitor software development lifecycle procedures for ISO 9000 and CMMI compliance. The process is usually automatic, although this title is sometimes misconstrued to suggest that this engineer only does manual testing.