Open Tech Calendar

Schedule

6.30pm Doors Open & Networking

Doors will close at 7pm so please arrive before hand

7.00pm A Brief Introduction to Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints - Laz Allen

Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC) has long been one of Skyscanner's not so secret sauces. First used at the company around 2014 as part of the move to squads and tribes and used time and again across the company to drive meaningful, effective improvement since then.

In this talk, Laz, will introduce the subject, cover a little of the background, the areas it can be used, the high-level principles and some of the practical tools for dealing with bottlenecks, critical root causes and dilemmas.

This is an introductory talk so expect to leave with more questions that you started; but that's ok as we’ll finish up with some of the best places Laz has found to find more. Be warned though, once seen you’ll never see an escalator the same way again.

Laz Allen is an Agile Coach at Skyscanner. He started out running a startup where he discovered agile and scrum from Henrik Kniberg’s seminal ‘Scrum in the Trenches’. The smallest of budgets and shortest of timescales gave Laz a passion for seeking effectiveness and focus. Laz picked up TOC three years ago, and spent time with Clarke Ching ironing out the chinks in his understanding. At Skyscanner he has a wide remit working with many squads across the company’s tribes and offices to drive that effectiveness and focus. Outside of work he’s working out how best to introduce his two small boys to wip limits.

8.00pm Solving Problems using Current and Future Reality Trees - Suzanne Morrison

When people think of the “Theory of Constraints” they usually think about flow and bottlenecks. However, Goldratt has a whole host of other techniques called the “Thinking processes” to help you solve complex system problems. In this talk Suzanne will tell you what you need to know about Goldratt's TOC Thinking processes and how you can use them to understand:

1. what to change

2. what to change to

3. how to change

You'll learn about a tool called a Current Reality Tree (CRT) to help you find the root cause(s) of multiple problems and a Future Reality Tree (FRT) to validate your proposed solutions. You'll also hear about some examples of the problems that have been solved at Skyscanner using these techniques and some tips for tree building.

Suzanne Morrison is an Agile Coach at Skyscanner in Edinburgh. She started out as a software developer and became interested in Agile back in 2006 when she learned about and implemented Scrum for the first time. On a typical day at Skyscanner she can be found running Lean/Agile training courses, helping new squads to start up and continuously improve, or using TOC techniques to improve flow. In her spare time, she loves to travel, cook and do yoga (not all at the same time).

9.00pm Post discussion drinks at the Doctors