The term Quality Assurance, when applied to the Testing team, is a misnomer. Its far too easy for a tester especially someone relatively new to testing, to think that the testing team is responsible for "assuring" product quality.
If the testing team is seen as the ones assuring quality, it tends to show the testers as the final line of defense, the ones responsible for "protecting" the customers from the "other group" that produces "poor quality" software. I can already envision warriors wearing flowing capes, masked faces and outrageous outfits with their swords drawn, all set to slay the dark forces of "bad quality" !
Reality tends to portray a slightly different picture ... while it is easy for us testers to assume that we "break the product", the fact is that the product is delivered to the testing team in a broken state ... oops, there goes our chance to claim credit for breaking something thats broken already ... In essence, what is being driven at via this entry, is the fact that Quality is the responsibility of everyone involved with the product and that everyone includes the Testers, the Developers, the folks creating the Documentation, PM, etc. etc.
To borrow a phrase from the Three Musketeers ... "All for One and One for All" ... un pour tous, tous pour un, if you will.
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