"When I was hired at WordStar, back in 1983 (when WordStar was the top producer of word
processing software in the world), the test group was called Quality Assurance. The company
was attached to the label QA for testers, but as Testing Technology Team Leader, I was able to
convince them to change the name, from Quality Assurance to Quality Assistance.
Quality Assistance--that's what testers do. We help. We investigate. We learn things. We report
them clearly. We make sure that people understand what we have found and what its significance
means. We provide the good data that is so important for understanding and improving the
quality of the product. That's important, but it's not "quality assurance.""
from The Ongoing Revolution in Software Testing.
Kaner has a valid point with his argument. Somebody can only assure quality if this person has the necessary powers. However most tester will not be able to stop a release if the quality goal has not been met. Furthermore the word assistance lowers the tension between the developers and the QA group. Assisting somebody is about offering help and guidance which is completely different than what assurance stands for.