UCF Glossary

QUADRANT

Short name referring to technology that provides tamper-resistant protection to crypto-equipment. [US National Information Assurance (IA) Glossary]

Quality

The ability of a product, service, or process to provide the intended value. For example, a hardware component can be considered to be of high quality if it performs as expected and delivers the required reliability. Process quality also requires an ability to monitor effectiveness and efficiency and to improve them if necessary. See also quality management system. [ITIL]

Quality Assurance (QA)

The function that reviews software project activities and tests software products throughout the software lifecycle to determine if 1) the software project is adhering to its established plans, standards, and procedures, and 2) the software meets the functional specifications defined by the user. See also Quality Control. [FISCAM, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), ITIL]

Quality Control (QC)

Steps taken to ensure that results of a given task, product or service are of sufficiently high quality; the operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfill requirements for quality. In document handling and management processes, this includes image quality (resolution, skew, speckle, legibility, etc.), and data quality (correct information in appropriate fields, validated data for dates, addresses, names/issues lists, etc.). See also Quality Assurance. [Sedona Conference]

Quality Management System (QMS)

A system that outlines the policies and procedures necessary to improve and control the various processes that will ultimately lead to improved business performance. The set of processes responsible for ensuring that all work carried out by an organization is of a suitable quality to reliably meet business objectives or service levels. See also ISO 9000. [CobiT, ITIL]

Quarter Inch Cartridge (QIC)

Digital recording tape, 2000 feet long, with an uncompressed capacity of 5 GB. [Sedona Conference]

Query

The process of extracting data from a database and presenting it for use. [FISCAM, Sedona Conference]

Query By Image Content (QBIC)

An IBM search system for stored images which allows the user to sketch an image, and then search the image files to find those which most closely match. The user can specify color and texture – such as “sandy beaches” or “clouds”. [Sedona Conference]

Queue

A group of items that is waiting to be serviced or processed. For example, a print queue holds files that are waiting to be printed. [ISACA, Sedona Conference]

Quick ship

A recovery solution provided by recovery and/or hardware vendors and includes a pre-established contract to deliver hardware resources within a specified number of hours after a disaster occurs. This solution usually provides organizations with the ability to recover within 72 hours or greater. [ISACA]

Quick win

An improvement activity which is expected to provide a return on investment in a short period of time with relatively small cost and effort. See also Pareto principle. [ITIL]