Agile Transformation Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Transformation Directors, Senior Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CM-115

Before you join: Participants should have experience leading teams, programmes, projects, operational functions or organisational change.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Agile transformation is not achieved by adding Scrum ceremonies or renaming project managers. It requires leaders to change how work is funded, prioritised, governed and measured while maintaining service continuity, regulatory control and customer commitments. Common failure points include disconnected pilot teams, unclear accountabilities, middle-management resistance, overloaded change portfolios and metrics that reward local utilisation rather than customer value. Leaders need a disciplined approach to diagnose these conditions, set a credible transformation case and guide behavioural as well as structural change.

This course prepares leaders to design and lead an agile transformation programme. Participants examine business agility, value streams, operating-model choices, product funding, portfolio management, governance, leadership behaviours and organisational change methods. They apply frameworks including Prosci ADKAR, Kotter's 8-Step Process, Scrum, Kanban and OKRs to realistic transformation decisions. The course addresses enterprise constraints found in banks, public bodies, NGOs, technology firms and multinational operations, including risk management, audit evidence, supplier dependencies and cross-functional decision-making.

Teaching combines short instructor briefings with case analysis, group diagnostics, transformation simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with transformation scenarios involving legacy systems, competing priorities, resistant stakeholders and delivery pressures. They leave with a practical Agile Transformation Leadership Toolkit: a transformation charter, stakeholder and change-impact analysis, value-stream assessment, operating-model design choices, metrics set and 90-day action plan. The course is suited to managers who must sponsor, govern or lead agile change beyond an individual team.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose transformation barriers using systems thinking, value-stream analysis and organisational design evidence
  • Create an agile transformation charter with measurable outcomes, scope, governance and decision rights
  • Map stakeholder influence and change impacts using the Prosci ADKAR model
  • Design product-oriented operating-model options covering teams, roles, funding and governance
  • Prioritise transformation initiatives using outcome-based roadmaps, OKRs and portfolio flow metrics
  • Lead resistance conversations using structured listening, sponsorship and manager-coaching techniques
  • Establish transformation metrics covering customer value, flow, capability adoption and risk controls
  • Produce a 90-day agile transformation action plan with owners, milestones and review points

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Build a credible transformation case for senior sponsors and governance boards
  • Lead difficult adoption conversations with managers, teams and control functions
  • Move from isolated agile pilots to coordinated value-stream change
  • Use practical measures to show transformation progress and adoption gaps
  • Create a focused 90-day leadership plan for a live change priority

For your organisation

  • Clearer links between transformation investment, customer outcomes and strategic priorities
  • Reduced duplication between agile teams, programmes, PMOs and change functions
  • Stronger adoption of new roles, decision rights and cross-functional working practices
  • Earlier identification of delivery, control and stakeholder risks
  • More useful executive reporting on value, flow, capability and change progress

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define a credible transformation case based on business outcomes, constraints and evidence.

  • Business agility distinguished from team-level agile adoption and delivery speed
  • Transformation hypotheses linked to customer outcomes, risk reduction, and economics
  • Agile maturity assessments challenged through evidence, not generic scorecards
  • Systems thinking identifies reinforcing loops, delays, and unintended consequences
  • Value-stream boundaries selected using customer demand and service performance
  • Transformation charter defines purpose, scope, decision rights, and constraints

Participants can assess how structures, processes and incentives affect agile ways of working.

  • Current-state diagnosis covers structure, workflow, culture, technology, and controls
  • Value-stream mapping exposes handoffs, queues, rework, and approval delays
  • Conway's Law connects communication structures with product and service architecture
  • Decision-rights mapping distinguishes accountable owners, contributors, and escalation paths
  • Incentive analysis tests whether targets reinforce collaboration or local optimisation
  • Organisational network analysis identifies influential informal leaders and knowledge brokers

Participants can evaluate and design operating-model choices that support product and value-stream delivery.

  • Product operating models organise persistent teams around customer problems
  • Team Topologies distinguishes stream-aligned, platform, enabling, and complicated-subsystem teams
  • Role design clarifies product, delivery, technical, operational, and control accountabilities
  • Communities of practice maintain specialist standards across product-oriented structures
  • Centralised and decentralised choices tested against scale, risk, and capability
  • Target operating-model principles guide phased structural and process changes

Participants can align investment, portfolio decisions and governance with agile delivery outcomes.

  • Outcome-based portfolio management replaces project lists with strategic investment themes
  • OKRs connect strategic intent, measurable outcomes, and team-level priorities
  • Lean budgeting funds value streams rather than fixed annual project scopes
  • Portfolio Kanban visualises demand, discovery, delivery, and investment decisions
  • Governance cadence separates strategic steering from delivery-level problem solving
  • Risk-based assurance integrates compliance evidence into delivery workflows

Participants can plan and lead behavioural adoption using structured change-management methods.

  • Prosci ADKAR assesses awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement
  • Kotter's 8-Step Process structures urgency, coalition building, and sustained change
  • Change-impact assessment identifies altered roles, processes, systems, and measures
  • Sponsor roadmaps specify visible actions, communications, decisions, and reinforcement
  • Manager coaching equips line leaders to translate change locally
  • Resistance analysis separates legitimate concerns from uncertainty, loss, and misinformation

Participants can model leadership behaviours that support learning, accountability and constructive challenge.

  • Servant leadership balances team autonomy with clear outcome accountability
  • Psychological safety enables speaking up about risks, failures, and dependencies
  • Leader standard work establishes regular observation, coaching, and escalation routines
  • Situational leadership adapts direction and support to capability and commitment
  • Constructive conflict protocols surface trade-offs without personalising disagreement
  • After-action reviews convert delivery setbacks into specific process improvements

Participants can create capability-building and communication approaches matched to stakeholder needs.

  • Capability heatmaps identify priority skills, role gaps, and learning pathways
  • Training needs analysis separates knowledge deficits from system design barriers
  • Change narratives explain why, what changes, and expected personal impacts
  • Stakeholder segmentation differentiates sponsors, managers, practitioners, partners, and critics
  • Communication plans specify messages, channels, timing, owners, and feedback loops
  • Change champion networks create two-way feedback between leadership and teams

Participants can establish balanced measures for transformation outcomes, delivery flow and adoption.

  • Balanced scorecards combine customer, financial, process, capability, and risk indicators
  • Flow metrics track throughput, work in progress, cycle time, and ageing
  • DORA metrics assess deployment frequency, lead time, recovery, and change failures
  • Outcome measures test customer behaviour, service performance, and realised benefits
  • Adoption dashboards combine ADKAR evidence, training data, and behavioural observations
  • Leading and lagging indicators prevent reporting solely after benefits materialise

Participants can manage dependencies and control requirements without reverting to command-and-control delivery.

  • Dependency mapping identifies shared services, platforms, suppliers, and decision bottlenecks
  • Risk workshops prioritise uncertainties by likelihood, impact, ownership, and response
  • Third-party contracts examined for fixed scope, incentives, and delivery flexibility
  • Control-by-design embeds audit trails, segregation duties, and approval evidence
  • Cross-functional planning aligns architecture, security, legal, procurement, and operations
  • Escalation paths resolve blocked decisions within defined service-level expectations

Participants can sequence transformation actions and establish mechanisms for continued learning and adjustment.

  • Transformation roadmaps sequence foundations, pilots, scaling decisions, and reinforcement
  • 90-day plans assign actions, owners, milestones, dependencies, and review dates
  • Inspect-and-adapt reviews compare expected outcomes with observed evidence
  • Transformation backlogs prioritise organisational impediments using value and urgency
  • Benefits reviews test realised outcomes against original transformation hypotheses
  • Sustainment plans embed practices within governance, talent, budgeting, and performance cycles

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Agile transformation charter template
  2. Value-stream and operating-model diagnostic
  3. Stakeholder influence and ADKAR assessment
  4. Outcome-based portfolio roadmap
  5. Transformation metrics dashboard
  6. 90-day transformation action plan

Who should attend

  • Transformation Directors — responsible for shaping enterprise change portfolios and outcomes
  • Senior Managers — leading functions affected by new delivery and governance models
  • Programme Managers — coordinating dependencies, milestones and transformation risks
  • Product Leaders — establishing product structures, prioritisation and value accountability
  • PMO Leaders — adapting portfolio governance, reporting and funding practices
  • Change Managers — integrating behavioural adoption work with agile delivery change

Skills and tools covered

Transformation strategyChange leadershipValue-stream managementAgile operating modelsPortfolio governanceChange measurement

Tools and standards

Prosci ADKAR Model, Kotter's 8-Step Process, Scrum, Kanban

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short briefings to introduce methods, followed by case work, group analysis and facilitated discussion. Participants assess transformation scenarios, map value streams, test operating-model choices and respond to stakeholder resistance in structured simulations. Examples reflect regulated services, public programmes, technology-enabled operations and multinational delivery environments. Instructor feedback focuses on the quality of diagnosis, decision logic, governance choices and practical next steps. Participants progressively build an application plan linked to a current or anticipated transformation.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience leading teams, programmes, projects, operational functions or organisational change. They should understand basic project delivery concepts, stakeholder management and business performance measures. Familiarity with Agile, Scrum or Kanban is useful but not essential; key concepts are introduced and applied during the course. Participants do not need software development experience, agile certification, formal change-management certification or prior responsibility for an enterprise transformation. The course assumes a willingness to examine current management practices and work with practical organisational scenarios.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, 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
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience leading people, projects, programmes, operations or change initiatives. Prior Scrum, Kanban or formal change-management training is helpful but not required.

Bring a current or anticipated transformation challenge, such as a delayed digital programme, fragmented customer journey or new operating-model initiative. You may also bring non-confidential examples of current metrics, governance arrangements or stakeholder issues.

The course is designed for transformation leaders, senior managers, programme managers, product leaders, PMO leaders and change managers. It is most useful for people shaping change across multiple teams, functions or value streams.

Scrum Master and team courses focus on delivery practices within or close to a team. This course focuses on the leadership decisions needed to change operating models, governance, funding, culture and enterprise adoption.

You will leave with templates and a 90-day action plan that can be adapted to a live transformation priority. The methods support sponsor engagement, operating-model decisions, portfolio reviews and change-adoption planning.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case work, group analysis, simulations, discussion and application planning across ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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