Agile Portfolio Coordination for Programme Managers Training Course
| Course code | SD-AP-020 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5 days |
| Level | Intermediate |
| Category | Agile & PMO |
| Delivery | Classroom or live online |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion |
Course overview
Programme managers are often asked to coordinate a portfolio that contains agile product teams, regulatory initiatives, infrastructure work and vendor-led projects, each reporting progress differently. This creates unreliable forecasts, competing priorities, hidden dependencies and governance forums that focus on status updates rather than decisions. This course equips programme managers to establish portfolio-level visibility and control without imposing a single delivery method on every team.
Participants learn how to connect strategic objectives, portfolio themes, roadmaps, funding decisions, programme increments and team-level delivery evidence. The course covers lean portfolio management, Kanban-based demand management, value-stream mapping, capacity planning, dependency management, outcome measures and adaptive governance. Participants practise building portfolio backlogs, defining investment guardrails, using weighted prioritisation models, designing portfolio dashboards and escalating risks through evidence-based decision routes.
Delivery combines instructor-led explanation with a running portfolio case involving several agile teams and cross-programme dependencies. Participants use Jira Align, Jira Software, Microsoft Power BI and SAFe Lean Portfolio Management practices to analyse demand, model capacity, sequence initiatives and report portfolio health. Each participant leaves with a practical Agile Portfolio Coordination Playbook: a tailored portfolio operating model, prioritisation criteria, governance cadence, dashboard specification, dependency workflow and 90-day implementation plan. A certificate is awarded on completion.
The course is designed for experienced programme professionals who need to coordinate delivery across multiple teams, products or change initiatives while improving the quality of portfolio decisions. It is particularly useful where a PMO is moving from project-control reporting towards outcome, flow and value-based portfolio management.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Design a portfolio operating model that defines decision rights, governance forums and escalation routes
- Build a portfolio backlog using strategic themes, initiative hypotheses and explicit entry criteria
- Apply Weighted Shortest Job First and cost-of-delay analysis to prioritise competing initiatives
- Create capacity plans that reconcile team allocation, programme commitments and unplanned demand
- Map cross-team dependencies using a dependency board, ownership rules and resolution dates
- Configure portfolio flow measures for lead time, throughput, work in progress and blocked work
- Develop a Power BI portfolio dashboard that links investment, delivery progress, risks and outcomes
- Produce a 90-day agile portfolio coordination implementation plan for a live work environment
Benefits of attending
For you
- Gain a repeatable method for converting fragmented programme status into portfolio decision evidence
- Build credibility with executives by presenting investment trade-offs, capacity constraints and outcome measures clearly
- Learn to facilitate prioritisation discussions using WSJF, cost of delay and explicit portfolio criteria
- Strengthen readiness for portfolio manager, PMO leadership and enterprise transformation roles
- Leave with a reusable portfolio operating model and dashboard specification for workplace application
For your organisation
- Improves initiative selection by making strategic alignment, cost of delay and capacity visible before commitment
- Reduces delivery disruption through earlier identification and active management of cross-team dependencies
- Creates consistent portfolio reporting across agile, hybrid and project-based delivery environments
- Supports faster governance decisions with defined decision rights, investment guardrails and escalation paths
- Increases transparency of portfolio flow, blocked work and delivery risk for sponsors and senior leaders
Target competencies
Who should attend
- Programme Managers — who coordinate interdependent initiatives and need credible portfolio-level control
- Portfolio Managers — who must balance strategic demand, investment capacity and delivery evidence
- PMO Managers — who are redesigning reporting and governance for agile or hybrid delivery
- Senior Project Managers — who are moving into multi-project or programme coordination roles
- Transformation Managers — who must sequence change initiatives across shared teams and capabilities
- Product Operations Leads — who need to connect product roadmaps with enterprise investment decisions
Requirements and prerequisites
Participants should have practical experience managing projects, programmes, PMO reporting or cross-functional delivery work. They should understand basic agile concepts such as backlogs, iterations or sprints, Kanban boards, product roadmaps and retrospective improvement, as well as conventional concepts including milestones, risks, dependencies and resource constraints. Familiarity with spreadsheets and dashboard reports is assumed. Prior use of Jira, Jira Align or Power BI is helpful but not required; guided exercises use prepared data. No agile certification, coding knowledge, financial-accounting qualification or prior SAFe accreditation is required.
Training methodology
The five days use a single enterprise portfolio case, moving from strategic demand through prioritisation, delivery coordination and governance reporting. Short instructor-led sessions introduce each method before participants apply it in facilitated workshops using portfolio data, Jira-style work items and dashboard mock-ups. Groups challenge investment assumptions, resolve dependency conflicts and prepare executive decision packs. Daily debriefs connect the case to participants’ own organisations. The final session converts the completed artefacts into an individual 90-day application plan with stakeholder actions, measures and governance milestones.
Course outline
Day 1: Portfolio purpose, operating model and demand
- Agile portfolio coordination versus project portfolio administration
- Strategic themes, portfolio objectives and outcome hypotheses
- Value-stream identification and portfolio scope boundaries
- Portfolio operating model roles and decision rights
- Demand intake criteria and initiative classification
- Portfolio Kanban states and work-in-progress limits
- Governance cadences for investment and delivery decisions
Workshop: Participants diagnose a fragmented enterprise portfolio and produce a draft portfolio operating model with decision forums, roles and intake stages.
Day 2: Prioritisation, investment and capacity
- Portfolio backlog structure and initiative hypothesis statements
- Cost of delay components and economic prioritisation
- Weighted Shortest Job First calculation and sensitivity testing
- Strategic alignment scoring and confidence weighting
- Lean business cases and minimum viable investment
- Capacity allocation across products, programmes and operational demand
- Scenario planning for constrained teams and funding limits
Workshop: Participants score, sequence and defend a portfolio backlog using WSJF, strategic alignment and capacity scenarios.
Day 3: Coordinating delivery across teams and programmes
- Programme increment planning at portfolio scale
- Roadmap synchronisation across product and project work
- Cross-team dependency mapping and dependency ownership
- Risk-adjusted sequencing of initiatives and releases
- Managing shared services, vendors and specialist bottlenecks
- Portfolio-level impediment escalation workflow
- Jira Align and Jira Software hierarchy mapping
Workshop: Participants build a dependency board and integrated roadmap that assigns owners, resolution dates and escalation triggers.
Day 4: Portfolio flow, reporting and governance
- Portfolio flow metrics: lead time, throughput and work in progress
- Outcome measures, OKRs and benefits evidence
- Forecast confidence and delivery risk indicators
- Power BI dashboard design for executive decisions
- Portfolio health narratives and exception-based reporting
- Investment review agendas and decision logs
- Adaptive governance for agile, hybrid and regulatory work
Workshop: Participants create a portfolio dashboard specification and an exception-based executive decision pack from case data.
Day 5: Implementation and portfolio leadership
- Assessing current-state portfolio management maturity
- Stakeholder mapping for portfolio operating-model change
- Introducing portfolio Kanban without disrupting delivery teams
- Data ownership, reporting standards and metric definitions
- Coaching sponsors on trade-off and stop-start decisions
- Ninety-day implementation sequencing and success measures
- Continuous improvement through portfolio retrospectives
Workshop: Participants complete and peer-review an Agile Portfolio Coordination Playbook and 90-day implementation plan for their own organisation.
Tools & standards covered
Jira Align, Jira Software, Microsoft Power BI, SAFe Lean Portfolio Management
A typical training day
| 08:30 – 10:30 | First session |
| 10:30 – 10:45 | Refreshment break |
| 10:45 – 12:30 | Second session |
| 12:30 – 13:30 | Lunch and networking |
| 13:30 – 15:00 | Third session |
| 15:00 – 15:15 | Refreshment break |
| 15:15 – 16:30 | Workshop and daily review |
Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.
What the fee includes
- Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
- Full course workbook and materials
- Exercise files, templates and case studies
- Certificate of completion
- Refreshments and lunch (classroom deliveries)
- Post-course application plan
- Facilitator follow-up on request
- Group rates from five participants
How you can take this course
Classroom
Scheduled sessions in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Dubai and Cape Town.
Live online
The same facilitator and materials, delivered live for distributed teams and individuals.
In-house
Delivered privately for your team, at your offices or a venue of your choice, tailored to your context. Request a proposal.
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
Upcoming sessions
New dates are being scheduled. Ask us about the next session or an in-house delivery for your team.
Ask about datesGroup of 5+?
Request in-house delivery or group rates →Related courses in Agile & PMO
Agile PMO for Healthcare Transformation Delivery Training Course
Healthcare transformation portfolios must deliver change while protecting patient safety, clinical capacity, regulatory compliance and opera…
Agile PMO for Banking Transformation Projects Training Course
Banking transformation programmes must deliver digital channels, core-platform change, regulatory remediation, data modernisation and operat…
Agile PMO for Public Sector Digital Programmes Training Course
Public sector digital programmes must show visible service improvement while meeting statutory duties, spending controls, accessibility requ…
Microsoft Project for Hybrid PMO Planning Training Course
PMOs are increasingly expected to govern portfolios containing predictive projects, Agile product work and hybrid delivery initiatives witho…