Jira Align for Agile Portfolio Management Training Course
| Course code | SD-AP-013 |
|---|---|
| Duration | 5 days |
| Level | Foundation to Intermediate |
| Category | Agile & PMO |
| Delivery | Classroom or live online |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Certificate of completion |
Course overview
Jira Align is designed to connect enterprise strategy, portfolios, programmes, and delivery teams, but many organisations struggle to turn its data model into reliable decision-making. Portfolio leaders may see inconsistent objectives, duplicated initiatives, poorly maintained dependencies, and delivery data that does not reconcile with Jira Software. This course addresses the practical challenge of configuring and using Jira Align so that investment decisions, roadmap commitments, capacity assumptions, and delivery progress can be reviewed through a single, governed portfolio view.
Participants learn how Jira Align structures strategy, portfolios, solutions, programmes, teams, epics, capabilities, features, and stories. They practise creating strategic themes and objectives, connecting work to outcomes, setting up portfolio hierarchies, managing dependencies and risks, modelling capacity, and interpreting portfolio-level reports. The course also covers the integration points between Jira Align and Jira Software, including work-item synchronisation, team mappings, data-quality controls, and the operating routines needed to keep portfolio information trustworthy.
Instruction is delivered through guided demonstrations, realistic portfolio scenarios, configuration workshops, and reporting exercises using Jira Align. Participants build a portfolio operating model for a case organisation, including a strategy-to-delivery hierarchy, investment roadmap, capacity plan, dependency board, programme increment plan, and executive reporting pack. They leave with a reusable Jira Align configuration workbook and a practical 90-day adoption plan that can be adapted to their own PMO, transformation office, or product portfolio.
The course is suited to professionals who need to administer, govern, interpret, or act on enterprise agile portfolio data rather than simply manage work in individual Jira projects.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Configure a Jira Align portfolio hierarchy linking strategic themes, objectives, portfolios, programmes, teams, and work items
- Create outcome-based strategic objectives and connect epics, capabilities, and features to measurable business value
- Map Jira Software projects, boards, issue types, and teams to Jira Align delivery structures
- Build portfolio roadmaps using Jira Align programme increments, releases, milestones, and investment sequencing
- Model team capacity and demand using velocity, allocation, role profiles, and capacity forecasts
- Manage cross-programme dependencies, risks, and impediments through Jira Align dependency and risk views
- Produce executive portfolio reports using Jira Align scorecards, investment data, progress measures, and drill-downs
- Develop a Jira Align governance cadence and data-quality control plan for portfolio reporting
Benefits of attending
For you
- Gain practical confidence in navigating and configuring Jira Align portfolio, programme, and team structures
- Build evidence-based portfolio reporting skills that support senior stakeholder and investment conversations
- Learn to diagnose data-quality issues between Jira Align and Jira Software before they undermine reporting
- Develop a reusable approach to programme increment planning, capacity forecasting, and dependency management
- Strengthen suitability for Jira Align administrator, agile portfolio manager, PMO transformation, and product operations roles
For your organisation
- Creates more consistent links between strategic objectives, funded initiatives, and delivery-team work
- Improves the reliability of executive portfolio reporting through defined mappings, ownership, and data controls
- Exposes cross-programme dependencies and capacity constraints earlier in the planning cycle
- Supports more defensible investment and prioritisation decisions using comparable value, cost, progress, and risk data
- Establishes a repeatable Jira Align operating cadence for portfolio reviews, programme increment planning, and governance
Target competencies
Who should attend
- Enterprise PMO Leaders — who need governed portfolio data for investment, prioritisation, and delivery reviews
- Agile Portfolio Managers — who coordinate strategic initiatives across multiple programmes and value streams
- Jira Align Administrators — who configure hierarchies, integrations, permissions, and reporting structures
- Release Train Engineers — who manage programme increment planning, dependencies, and delivery alignment
- Transformation Leaders — who need to establish practical operating routines for enterprise agile adoption
- Product Operations Managers — who connect product roadmaps, team delivery data, and portfolio outcomes
Requirements and prerequisites
Participants should understand the basic purpose of agile delivery, including backlogs, epics, features, stories, sprints, releases, and cross-team dependencies. Familiarity with Jira Software projects, boards, issue types, and workflows is strongly recommended because the course examines how Jira data synchronises with Jira Align. Experience in a PMO, product, programme, transformation, or delivery role is useful. Prior Jira Align administration is not required, and participants do not need coding, API, database, or advanced reporting skills. Complete beginners should expect to spend time learning both the Jira Align hierarchy and enterprise agile planning vocabulary.
Training methodology
The instructor uses a working Jira Align training environment to demonstrate each configuration and planning activity before participants apply it to a multi-programme case organisation. Short briefings establish the portfolio-management method, followed by guided exercises in hierarchy design, Jira Software mappings, roadmap planning, capacity modelling, dependency management, and executive reporting. Small groups challenge each other's investment assumptions and reporting choices. On the final day, each participant converts the case learning into a 90-day Jira Align adoption plan for their own operating context.
Course outline
Day 1: Jira Align foundations and portfolio structure
- Jira Align navigation, terminology, roles, and permissions
- Enterprise agile portfolio management operating model
- Strategy, portfolio, solution, programme, team, and work-item hierarchy
- Strategic themes, objectives, key results, and business value
- Portfolio and programme configuration principles
- Investment guardrails and portfolio governance ownership
- Jira Align data model and record relationships
Workshop: Participants configure a strategy-to-team hierarchy for a case organisation and produce a portfolio structure map with named ownership.
Day 2: Connecting strategy, investment, and delivery data
- Outcome-based objective definition in Jira Align
- Epic, capability, feature, and story traceability
- Jira Software project and board mapping
- Issue type, workflow, and field synchronisation considerations
- Team mapping and velocity data alignment
- Data-quality rules for synchronised work items
- Investment themes, funding views, and prioritisation criteria
Workshop: Participants map Jira Software delivery projects to Jira Align teams and create traceable objectives, epics, capabilities, and features.
Day 3: Roadmaps, programme increments, and capacity
- Portfolio roadmaps and strategic sequencing
- Programme increment planning in Jira Align
- Release vehicles, milestones, and planning intervals
- Capacity allocation by team, role, and portfolio
- Velocity, load, and forecast interpretation
- Demand-versus-capacity scenario modelling
- Roadmap change control and planning assumptions
Workshop: Participants build a two-programme roadmap and capacity forecast, then document the trade-offs required to meet a target release date.
Day 4: Dependencies, risks, and portfolio controls
- Cross-team and cross-programme dependency types
- Jira Align dependency board configuration
- Dependency milestones, owners, and resolution tracking
- Portfolio risk identification and escalation
- Impediment management across value streams
- What-if analysis for delayed features and constrained teams
- Portfolio review cadence and decision logs
Workshop: Participants run a dependency and risk review for the case portfolio and produce an escalation plan with accountable owners and dates.
Day 5: Reporting, governance, and adoption planning
- Executive scorecards and portfolio health indicators
- Progress, value, cost, risk, and predictability measures
- Drill-down reporting from portfolio to Jira delivery work
- Jira Align dashboards and saved views
- Atlassian Analytics reporting considerations
- Data stewardship, access controls, and audit readiness
- Jira Align adoption roadmap and governance cadence
Workshop: Participants create an executive portfolio reporting pack and complete a 90-day Jira Align implementation plan for their own organisation.
Tools & standards covered
Jira Align, Jira Software, Confluence, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
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+?
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