I have been following ISO12207 for the sake of my thesis dealing with software quality. Now I should explain quality assurance and here comes the problem: according to this norm, QA is a supporting process, separated but on the same level with verification, validation and auditing processes. According to other sources, Quality Assurance is basically high level activity making sure that standards, norms etc. are being followed. Usually the part of Quality Assurance is the Quality Control (testing, reviewing, inspections also V&V) which measures the quality and provides QA with this information so it can be acted upon. I somehow do not understand how QA is thought to be according to this ISO and what activities should it perform. Also it does not mention QC except for a footnote.