Agile PMO Leadership for PMO Managers Training Course

Course overview

PMO managers are under pressure to provide reliable portfolio governance without slowing delivery teams that work in Scrum, Kanban, hybrid, and product-led models. Traditional PMO controls often depend on fixed scope baselines, milestone reporting, and annual planning cycles; agile teams instead generate evidence through backlogs, increments, flow data, and frequent reprioritisation. This course addresses the practical leadership challenge: how to redesign PMO services, controls, reporting, and decision forums so executives receive dependable information while teams retain the autonomy needed to deliver value quickly.

Participants learn to operate an Agile PMO as a portfolio enablement function rather than a project administration layer. The course covers PMO operating-model design, agile portfolio governance, investment guardrails, demand intake, capacity planning, lean portfolio metrics, dependency management, and outcome-based reporting. Participants practise translating team-level data from Jira and delivery plans into executive-ready portfolio views, establishing proportionate assurance controls, facilitating quarterly planning, and using risk, flow, and benefits data to make funding and prioritisation decisions.

Teaching combines instructor-led briefings with an extended PMO transformation case based on a multi-team change portfolio. Each day includes workshops using portfolio canvases, governance design templates, metrics definitions, and reporting prototypes. Participants leave with a practical Agile PMO Leadership Playbook: a tailored operating model, governance cadence, KPI set, portfolio dashboard specification, and 90-day implementation roadmap that can be adapted for their own PMO.

The course is best suited to experienced PMO professionals who must modernise an established PMO, support an enterprise agile transformation, or govern a mixed portfolio of predictive, agile, and hybrid initiatives.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design an Agile PMO operating model that defines services, decision rights, governance forums, and team interfaces
• Build a portfolio intake and prioritisation process using weighted scoring, cost of delay, and strategic alignment criteria
• Create outcome-based portfolio dashboards using OKRs, flow metrics, delivery confidence indicators, and benefits measures
• Establish proportionate assurance controls for agile, hybrid, and predictive delivery initiatives
• Facilitate quarterly portfolio planning using capacity forecasts, dependency mapping, and investment guardrails
• Analyse Jira delivery data to identify flow bottlenecks, aging work, throughput trends, and portfolio delivery risks
• Develop an executive governance pack that converts team-level evidence into actionable funding and escalation decisions
• Produce a 90-day Agile PMO implementation roadmap with change actions, owners, measures, and review points

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• PMO Managers — who need to redesign PMO services and controls for agile and hybrid delivery
• Head of PMO — who must establish portfolio governance that supports strategic agility
• Portfolio Managers — who prioritise investments and need evidence-based portfolio decision methods
• Transformation Office Leads — who coordinate enterprise agile change across multiple business units
• Programme Directors — who manage complex cross-team dependencies and executive reporting
• Senior Project Managers — who are moving into PMO or portfolio leadership responsibilities

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience working in a PMO, programme office, portfolio function, or project governance role. The course assumes familiarity with core project and portfolio concepts such as business cases, milestones, RAID logs, resource planning, steering committees, and status reporting. Participants should also understand the basic purpose of Scrum, Kanban, backlogs, iterations, and product ownership, although they do not need to be practising agile coaches. Experience with Jira, Microsoft Project, or Power BI is useful but not mandatory; demonstrations use representative data and templates. No coding, statistical modelling, or formal agile certification is required.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led modules followed by applied PMO workshops built around a multi-team transformation portfolio. Participants assess a current-state PMO, configure demand and governance workflows, interpret Jira-style flow data, and construct portfolio reporting views using supplied templates. Small groups test decisions involving capacity constraints, competing investments, dependencies, and delivery risk in simulated portfolio reviews. Daily reflection links the case material to each participant’s organisation. On day five, participants consolidate their work into a tailored Agile PMO Leadership Playbook and 90-day application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Repositioning the PMO for Agile Delivery

• PMO service models for predictive, agile, and hybrid portfolios
• The shift from project control to portfolio enablement
• Agile PMO maturity assessment dimensions
• PMO value propositions and customer segmentation
• Decision rights using RAPID and delegated authority models
• Governance principles for autonomy with accountability
• Current-state PMO pain-point and service mapping

Workshop: Participants complete an Agile PMO maturity assessment and produce a current-state service map identifying controls to retain, redesign, or retire.

Day 2: Portfolio Governance, Demand and Investment Decisions

• Strategic themes, portfolio guardrails, and investment horizons
• Demand intake design and minimum viable business cases
• Weighted shortest job first and cost of delay calculations
• Portfolio Kanban policies and work-in-progress limits
• Lean business case assumptions and hypothesis tracking
• Funding models for products, value streams, and initiatives
• Portfolio review cadences and escalation pathways

Workshop: Participants design a portfolio intake workflow and prioritise a set of competing initiatives using cost of delay, strategic fit, and capacity constraints.

Day 3: Metrics, Reporting and Evidence-Based Assurance

• Outcome measures, OKRs, and benefits realisation indicators
• Flow metrics including throughput, cycle time, work item age, and predictability
• Jira data structures for portfolio-level reporting
• Executive dashboard design principles in Power BI
• Delivery confidence assessments and evidence-based forecasting
• Proportionate assurance controls and agile health checks
• RAID management for cross-team portfolio risks

Workshop: Participants create a portfolio dashboard specification and assurance pack that combines outcome, flow, risk, and confidence indicators.

Day 4: Capacity, Dependencies and Portfolio Execution

• Capacity planning across teams, value streams, and specialist functions
• Rolling-wave planning and quarterly planning events
• Dependency mapping with programme boards and dependency matrices
• Managing shared services and constrained resources
• Scenario planning for sequencing, funding, and scope trade-offs
• Hybrid schedule integration using Microsoft Project milestones
• Portfolio risk reviews and impediment removal mechanisms

Workshop: Participants run a quarterly planning simulation and produce a capacity-based portfolio plan with dependencies, risks, and escalation actions.

Day 5: Leading Agile PMO Change and Implementation

• Stakeholder analysis for PMO operating-model change
• Change adoption strategy for executives, teams, and delivery leaders
• PMO role redesign and capability development pathways
• Governance pilot selection and success criteria
• Ninety-day implementation planning and sequencing
• Agile PMO KPI baselines and benefit measurement
• Executive narrative and portfolio transformation communication

Workshop: Participants present their Agile PMO Leadership Playbook and produce a 90-day roadmap with accountable owners, adoption measures, and governance milestones.

Tools & standards covered

Jira Software, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Power BI, PMI Agile Practice Guide

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions