Don’t Just Shift Left—Shimmy: Infusing Quality into the Entire SDLC

In today’s fast-paced software development environments, "shift left" has become a widely adopted practice, encouraging teams to focus on quality earlier in the development lifecycle. While this is a crucial step, it’s not enough to ensure that quality is truly embedded throughout every phase of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). In this session, Amanda will go beyond simply shifting left—exploring how teams can "shimmy," moving fluidly and consistently to infuse quality into every step of the process, from ideation to deployment and beyond. Attendees will learn practical strategies for creating a culture of continuous quality ownership across cross-functional teams. Amanda will discuss actionable techniques such as integrated testing, collaborative feedback loops, and leveraging automation to maintain quality across the development pipeline. By shifting from a "quality gatekeeper" mentality to one of shared responsibility, organizations can drive faster delivery while reducing defects and technical debt. This talk is ideal for quality engineers, developers, and leaders seeking to evolve their quality assurance practices to meet the demands of modern, agile development frameworks. Leave with the tools to "shimmy" through the SDLC, ensuring quality is never an afterthought, but a constant throughout.