Westfall Weekly Webinars

True Shift-Left Does Pay Off  presented by Robin Goldsmith

May 6, 2026, at 12:01 pm Central

Quality “Shift-Left” is a proven way to deliver higher-quality yet lower-cost software.  Except, too much of what’s claimed to be shift-left isn’t really shifting left and delivers far-lower merely-marginal benefits, at best.  This interactive session explains what shift-left is meant to mean, why it can provide such big benefits, what’s often claimed to be shift-left instead, why it can only deliver more modest benefits, and how to shift truly left.

• Shift-left lifecycle perspective
• Illusory marginal activity “shift-left
• Achieving meaningful true shift-left and its bigger benefits

Bringing Quality Control into the Digital Age: Integrating Data, Systems, and Human Insight presented by: Sainyam Arora 

May 13, 2026, at 12:01 pm Central

Quality control has traditionally relied on inspections, audits, and manual data collection. As organizations adopt digital tools and analytics, quality professionals face the challenge of integrating these technologies into established quality control practices without losing the process discipline that ensures reliability. This webinar explores how modern manufacturing and engineering teams can connect traditional quality control methods with data-driven tools to improve decision-making, visibility, and operational performance. Attendees will gain practical insights into how quality control can evolve alongside digital transformation while maintaining strong process foundations.

6 Steps to Designing a Metric

Presented by:  Linda Westfall

After we have defined what we want to measure and why, we need to design a consistent, clear way to collect and report the measurement. This allows everyone to collect data, turn it into information, and interpret it correctly to make better fact-based decisions. In this webinar, attendees will learn the six steps needed to design reliable and  valid metrics, including:
    - Standardizing definitions for the entities and attributes being measured
    - Choosing a measurement function
    - Establishing a measurement method
    - Defining decision criteria
    - Designing reporting mechanisms
    - Determining additional qualifiers

Available Free Until: 05/03/2026
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Team Estimation

Presented by: Al Shalloway

Learn a better approach to estimation than estimating story size using Planning Poker.

This webinar will discuss why the common method of how and what to estimate is poor advice.

Estimates should be based more on the value increments to be created and use a method that does not fall prey to the “planning fallacy” - a cognitive bias where people underestimate the time, costs, and risks of future actions, despite knowing that similar past projects exceeded similar estimates.

It will introduce Steve Bockman’s Team Estimation with a callout to James Grenning’s Planning Poker Party (no relation to planning poker).  This is a faster, more efficient, and more effective planning method that can be used even in places where Planning Poker is ineffective.

You’ll learn both how to use Team Estimation and be given access to a Lucid Board that enables you to do this remotely. 

Available Free Until: 04/26/2026
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78.34% of Metrics Are Made Up 

Presented by: Robin Goldsmith

Hopefully, the percentage of metrics that are made up is far lower, but surely is greater than zero.  Sometimes it can be intentional, whereas other times it can be inadvertent. Regardless, made-up metrics can have consequences, which can be especially hard to detect due to the lack of reliable measures.  This interactive session explores circumstances and impacts where metrics may be made up and suggests better approaches.
    - Do only politicians make up metrics?
    - Bigger dangers of inadvertently made-up metrics
    - Need for and ways to detect and deal with made-up metrics

Available Free Until: 06/20/2026

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So You Want to Measure Stuff? 

Presented by: Scott Duncan

This webinar, while certainly discussing some typical metrics, encourages thinking beyond the traditional sense of metrics to consider other ways to “measure” things leading to positive change. As the webinar states, you measure to learn; learn to decide; decide to act; and act to cause some change to occur. The question is then, what change are you looking to make?

Available Free Until: 06/14/2026
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How Lean, Evo, Flow, and Theory of Constraints Enables You to Shift Left

Presented by: Al Shalloway 

All of these methods are consistent with Deming. All add something to his work. And all leave a little out.

Together they give you a focus on continuous learning, who to create value for, how to maximize value creation, and how to diagnose and solve your problems. This webinar will introduce the concepts that each of these provide and how they work together. 

Available Free Until: 06/07/2026
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QA vs. QC vs. QM vs. QE

Presented by: Robin Goldsmith

What’s in a name?  Many similar-sounding terms are applied to various aspects of software quality, often inconsistently and incorrectly,  which can impact quality outcomes and effectiveness.  For instance, many who are called “Quality Assurance (QA)” actually do Quality Control (QC), which can mean the organization fails to receive real QA’s benefits.  Similar issues pertain to “Quality Management (QM)” and “Quality Engineering (QE).”  This interactive session explains and differentiates these important terms.
    - How terminology issues impact Quality outcomes and effectiveness
    - Distinguishing QA, QC, QM, and QE
    - Gaining respective benefits of each without undue overhead

Available Free Until: 05/24/26
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Defect Prevention: in Software Systems 

Presented by: Tom Gilb

Quality Assurance is defined as: Any methods that make sure, that we have the set of qualities we require, at the levels we require, and under other conditions (time, place, conditions) we require. Not at all limited to ‘bugs’ absence. Not limited to ‘code’.

Defect Prevention is defined as: avoidance of the occurrence of a defect at all. As opposed to detecting and correcting defects that have occurred.
Defect is defined: any negative deviation from specified requirements, for any type of requirements (function, performance, quality, constraint). Not just ‘function’.

Available Free Until: 05/17/26
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Levels & Types of Requirements

Presented by: Linda Westfall

Most software practitioners just talk about "the requirements" as if they were one big set. However, by recognizing that requirements come in different levels and types, practitioners gain a better understanding of the information they need when defining their software requirements.  

Business-level requirements define the business problems to be solved or the business opportunities to be addressed by the software product.  

Stakeholder-level requirements define the value-added needs of the various stakeholders of the software, including:
    - Functionality - what do the stakeholders need to do (or not do) using the software 
    - Business rules - what does the software need to adhere to
    - Quality attributes - what does the software need to be

There may be multiple ways to meet the stakeholder-level requirements. The product-level requirements define the choices of what the software product will be when built, including:
    - Product functional requirements
    - Product attributes requirements
    - External interface requirement
    - Data & information requirements
    - Design constraints

Available free until 05/10/2026
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