Westfall Weekly Webinars

The Building Blocks of Organizational Culture presented by Grace Duffy

Wednesday, September 27, 2023, at 12:01 pm Central

Explore some lesser-known quality improvement tools that support the process improvement cycle. Grace Duffy, LSSBMM, CMQ/OE, CQA, ASQ Fellow, will share a set of tools for identifying priority issues, establishing problem statements, and facilitating communication within the team and greater stakeholder community. Real-time examples are shared, allowing time for discussion and learning from colleagues.

Hidden Reasons You Overrun Budget and Schedule Estimates

Presented by: Robin Goldsmith

Can you identify with either or both of these scenarios?
   1.  You make your best estimates of needed time and effort. You overrun both, often by a lot.   Y ou are blamed for managing poorly.
   2.  Your boss gives you a budget and schedule. You overrun both, often by a lot. You are blamed for managing poorly.

Chances are the problem was more with the estimates--from you or your boss--than your managing to deliver on-time and in-budget.

Learn the hidden reasons both types of estimates lead to projects that are destined to fail.
   *  Reveal why bosses often set impossible budgets and schedules.
   *  Describe the two common shortcomings of even "responsible" estimating.
   *  Suggest ways to make estimates that can and do come true.

Available Free Until: 11/08/2023
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Number One Priority in Successful Change Projects

Presented by: Judy Alter

Businesses are making changes at an incredible pace that was uncommon, even five years ago. Many factors play a part in the changes, such as customer demands, technological advances, and rivalries. Business change is more complicated and demanding than in the past. The number one priority in any change project is the people factor.

Customers have higher expectations than in the past. The other priority people are the employees, vendors, stakeholders, consultants, and any other person affected by the change. Preparing all people is a crucial first step to getting them to be a partner in the changes.

Transparency is critical throughout the project. Employees of affected areas will feel threatened just hearing the word change or transformation in a project. The earlier that “how does this affect me?” can be answered, the smoother the adjustments will be for everyone.

Available Free Until: 11/01/2023
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Appraisals & Audits -- Adding Criteria Such as ISO and CMMI — How to Make Stuff Useful for Any Company

Presented by:  Neil Potter

What is an appraisal? In this session, Neil will describe:
- Appraisals with and without CMMI
- Focusing on performance and not some model or standard
- Using best practices from a variety of sources and merging them together
- CMMI Version 3

Available Free Until: 10/25/2023
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Managing Your Test Process as Well as Test Projects

Presented by: Robin Goldsmith

While any discipline can be so afflicted, testing is especially prone to primarily managing day-in-day-out testing projects rather than the testing process that has far greater impact.  In fact, many if not most testing organizations seem pretty unaware of their testing process, let alone actively managing it.  This is especially critical because meaningful effectiveness and improvement come via one’s process, which is not the same as procedures whose compliance auditing tends to focus on.
•          Distinguishing processes, projects, and procedures.
•          Why testing tends to be especially weak managing its processes.
•          How testing typically is audited, and how testing audits could be better.

Available Free Until: 10/18/2023
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Make Your Auditor Your Best Friend – Really???

Presented by: Robin Goldsmith

Has anyone ever thought of an auditor as their best friend?  And, yet… Smart managers know audits can be more than just tedious necessary-evil procedural compliance box-checking.  But it doesn’t happen automatically or unfortunately with most auditors.  In somewhat chicken-and-egg, both the auditor and auditee need to be enlightened and in-sync, which doesn’t seem like asking for much :-)

• Common (deserved) impressions of audits and auditors.
• A more enlightened view of auditors as your best friends.
• Making it happen.

Available 10/11/2023
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Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Audit

Presented by: Monica Chis

Description: The Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Audit is an independent examination of the Software Development Lifecycle process. Understanding the SDLC is essential for carrying out a software audit at the right moment in time.

Some issues relevant to SDLC audits will be highlighted in this webinar, including:
·       What is an SDLC audit?
·       Why do we require an SDLC audit?
·       When should the SDLC audit be carried out?
·       How is the SDLC audit performed?
·       How should the recommendations from the SDLC audit be applied?

Available Free Until: 10/04/23
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Audit Preparation - Conducting a Document Review

Presented by: Linda Westfall

This webinar will discuss the preparation step of an audit with a specific focus on the Document Review are of the preparation.  The purpose of the document review is to evaluate the audit related documents that were inputs to the audit against the audit criteria and to evaluate them for compliance, completeness, consistency and effectiveness.

Available Free Until: 9/27/2023
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Cause & Effect Diagrams

Presented by: Linda Westfall

Improving quality or analyzing risks involves taking action on the root causes of the quality problem or risks, and most issues have multiple causes. Cause-and-effect diagram, also referred to as an Ishikawa diagram or fishbone diagram, provides a simple, graphical way to explore the multiple root causes of any given quality problem or risk. In this webinar, Linda will discuss types of cause and effect diagrams and explore various uses of those diagrams.

Available Free Until: 9/20/2023

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