Strategic Portfolio Management Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Portfolio Managers, Heads of PMO 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-PM-099

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience managing projects, programmes, PMOs, transformation initiatives or investment planning processes.

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

Organisations rarely lack project proposals; they lack a disciplined way to choose, fund, sequence and stop work against strategic priorities. Senior leaders must balance mandated commitments, growth investments, technology renewal, risk reduction and operational improvement while working within finite capital, specialist capacity and risk tolerance. Poor portfolio decisions create duplicate initiatives, overloaded teams, delayed benefits and investments that continue after their strategic case has weakened.

This advanced course equips participants to govern the portfolio as an investment system rather than a collection of projects. Participants translate strategy into portfolio objectives, establish intake and business-case standards, score and rank investments, model alternative portfolios, balance resource capacity, and monitor financial, delivery and benefit performance. The course applies recognised methods including the PMI Standard for Portfolio Management, Management of Portfolios, Balanced Scorecard, multi-criteria decision analysis, Net Present Value, cost of delay, portfolio Kanban, Monte Carlo simulation and stage-gate governance.

Instruction combines focused briefings with realistic portfolio cases, facilitated group analysis, decision simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with portfolio data resembling capital programmes, digital transformation portfolios, public-service investment plans and enterprise change agendas. They leave with a reusable Strategic Portfolio Management Toolkit: a portfolio charter, strategic alignment scorecard, investment prioritisation model, capacity plan, portfolio dashboard and 90-day action plan. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the five-day instructor-led course.

The course is suited to experienced portfolio, programme, project, transformation, finance and strategy professionals who influence investment decisions or portfolio performance. It is delivered in classroom format in more than 50 cities or live online, with each training day running from 08:30 to 16:30 and providing approximately 6.5 contact hours.

What you will be able to do

  • Design a portfolio governance model with decision rights, escalation routes and review cadence
  • Translate strategic themes into measurable portfolio objectives, benefits and investment criteria
  • Evaluate business cases using financial valuation, benefit confidence and risk evidence
  • Construct a weighted prioritisation model using multi-criteria decision analysis
  • Model portfolio scenarios that balance strategic value, risk, funding and capacity constraints
  • Develop resource capacity plans using demand forecasts, skills profiles and bottleneck analysis
  • Build portfolio dashboards linking strategic alignment, delivery health, financials and benefits
  • Lead reprioritisation decisions using stage gates, risk triggers and evidence-based recommendations

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce defensible investment recommendations for executive and board-level decisions
  • Apply financial and non-financial criteria to competing initiative proposals
  • Identify capacity conflicts before commitments create delivery delays
  • Challenge weak business cases using structured evidence and benefit assumptions
  • Build a credible portfolio management action plan for immediate workplace use

For your organisation

  • Improves alignment between funded initiatives and stated strategic priorities
  • Reduces duplicate, low-value and poorly evidenced investment demand
  • Makes resource bottlenecks visible before portfolio commitments are approved
  • Strengthens governance for pausing, redirecting or terminating underperforming investments
  • Improves visibility of benefits, financial exposure and delivery risk across the portfolio

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can establish the governance structure, accountabilities and strategic purpose for a portfolio.

  • Portfolio management accountabilities under PMI Standard for Portfolio Management
  • Portfolio, programme and project distinctions within investment governance
  • Strategic themes translated into portfolio objectives and measurable benefits
  • Portfolio charter contents, decision rights and escalation thresholds
  • Governance cadence linking executive committees, review boards and delivery teams
  • Three Lines Model applied to portfolio assurance and risk oversight

Participants can convert organisational strategy into testable criteria for portfolio investment decisions.

  • Balanced Scorecard objectives mapped to candidate initiatives and benefits
  • Strategy maps testing causal links between investment themes
  • PESTLE, Five Forces and scenario signals informing portfolio assumptions
  • OKRs distinguished from portfolio outcomes, outputs and delivery milestones
  • Strategic fit scoring using weighted criteria and evidence ratings
  • Benefit dependency networks exposing prerequisites, conflicts and sequencing constraints

Participants can establish consistent intake, triage and business-case requirements for portfolio demand.

  • Intake funnel stages from concept note through authorization decision
  • Business cases structured around options, costs, benefits and disbenefits
  • SMART benefit measures assigned owners, baselines and realization dates
  • Assumption logs separating validated evidence from management judgement
  • Demand triage rules for mandatory, discretionary and emergent work
  • Duplicate initiative screening against existing programmes, products and assets

Participants can assess investment value and rank proposals using transparent prioritisation methods.

  • Net present value, IRR and payback compared for investment choices
  • Multi-criteria decision analysis weighting strategic, financial and risk factors
  • Analytic Hierarchy Process comparisons reducing inconsistent priority judgements
  • Cost of delay and WSJF applied to time-critical demand
  • Sensitivity analysis testing ranking changes under volatile benefit assumptions
  • Priority scoring calibration using anchor definitions and decision records

Participants can construct alternative portfolios that balance return, risk, timing and strategic coverage.

  • Portfolio bubble charts displaying value, risk, timing and resource demand
  • Efficient frontier concepts balancing expected returns against aggregate risk
  • Strategic buckets protecting mandated investment, innovation and operational renewal
  • Scenario portfolios comparing funding levels, constraints and strategic outcomes
  • Interdependency mapping identifying shared platforms, bottlenecks and sequencing choices
  • Selection decisions documented through portfolio roadmaps and investment rationale

Participants can balance portfolio commitments against available skills, resources and delivery capacity.

  • Resource capacity plans reconciling skills, availability, demand and attrition
  • Capacity heat maps exposing bottlenecks by role, location and period
  • Critical chain buffers protecting constrained specialists and dependent work
  • Resource leveling choices assessed against schedule, cost and benefit effects
  • Make-buy decisions comparing internal capacity, suppliers and contingent labour
  • Quarterly planning increments synchronising portfolio commitments with delivery capacity

Participants can manage portfolio funding, forecast financial performance and track realised benefits.

  • Portfolio budgets separating capital expenditure, operating expenditure and contingency
  • Funding tranches linked to evidence gates and benefit confidence
  • Earned value indicators interpreted alongside forecast cost and schedule data
  • Estimate at completion challenges escalated through financial tolerance thresholds
  • Benefits realization plans connecting outcomes, measures, owners and review dates
  • Post-implementation reviews testing forecast accuracy and realised value

Participants can manage aggregate portfolio risk and apply evidence-based continuation decisions.

  • Portfolio risk registers aggregating correlated threats, opportunities and exposure
  • Monte Carlo simulation estimating confidence ranges for cost and schedule
  • Risk appetite statements setting thresholds for investment and delivery exposure
  • Dependency risk analysis tracing failure paths across programmes and suppliers
  • Stage-gate reviews applying continuation, pause, pivot and termination criteria
  • Independent assurance plans targeting high-risk decisions and weak evidence

Participants can produce decision-focused portfolio reporting for senior governance forums.

  • Portfolio dashboards combining strategic, financial, delivery and benefit indicators
  • Leading indicators distinguishing emerging variance from confirmed underperformance
  • Traffic-light thresholds calibrated to tolerances, trends and management actions
  • Portfolio Kanban visualising demand flow, work-in-progress and decision queues
  • Benefits reviews separating attributable outcomes from external business changes
  • Executive narratives explaining trade-offs, exceptions and recommended decisions

Participants can respond to strategic change and create a practical portfolio improvement plan.

  • Change control assessing strategic fit, value impact and capacity displacement
  • Reprioritisation triggers defined for regulatory change, shocks and underperformance
  • Stop-pivot-continue decisions supported by evidence, sunk-cost discipline and options
  • Portfolio rebalancing scenarios communicating consequences to sponsors and delivery leaders
  • Stakeholder maps planning influence, engagement and resistance responses
  • Ninety-day portfolio action plans assigning decisions, owners and review dates

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

What you take back to work

  1. Portfolio governance charter template
  2. Strategic alignment scorecard
  3. Investment prioritisation model
  4. Portfolio scenario analysis model
  5. Resource capacity planning template
  6. Ninety-day portfolio action plan

Who should attend

  • Portfolio Managers — need stronger methods for selecting, balancing and governing investments
  • Heads of PMO — establish portfolio standards, assurance routes and executive reporting
  • Programme Directors — manage dependencies, benefits and capacity across major change programmes
  • Transformation Leaders — align digital, operational and organisational change with strategic priorities
  • Strategy Directors — connect strategic themes with funded initiatives and measurable outcomes
  • Finance Business Partners — assess investment cases, funding scenarios and realised benefits

Skills and tools covered

Portfolio governance designStrategic investment prioritisationPortfolio scenario modellingResource capacity planningBenefits realisation managementPortfolio performance reporting

Tools and standards

PMI Standard for Portfolio Management, Management of Portfolios (MoP), Balanced Scorecard, ISO 21504

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish portfolio concepts and decision methods, followed by case-based analysis of investment demand, business cases, resource constraints and performance data. Participants work in groups to compare prioritisation results, test portfolio scenarios and prepare recommendations for governance boards. Simulations address funding trade-offs, capacity shortfalls, risk escalation and stop-or-continue decisions. Individual application planning converts the methods into actions, templates and governance improvements relevant to each participant's portfolio.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience managing projects, programmes, PMOs, transformation initiatives or investment planning processes. They should be comfortable reading business cases, project schedules, budgets and management reports, and should understand basic project governance terminology. Prior exposure to portfolio management is useful but not essential. The course assumes participants can contribute to senior decision discussions and interpret numerical information. Formal project management certification, advanced finance qualifications, statistical modelling expertise and prior use of specialist portfolio software are not required.

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 in projects, programmes, PMOs, transformation, strategy execution or investment planning. The course does not require formal portfolio management certification or advanced financial modelling expertise.

Bring a laptop if possible, plus a non-confidential example of a portfolio challenge, business case or governance issue from your workplace. Course materials and reusable templates are provided.

It is designed for experienced professionals who influence investment selection, portfolio governance, resource allocation or benefits realisation. It is particularly relevant to portfolio managers, PMO leaders, programme directors, transformation leaders and finance partners.

Project and programme courses focus on delivering a defined body of work. This course focuses on choosing the right work, balancing investments as a portfolio, allocating constrained resources and stopping work that no longer justifies funding.

Participants receive templates for governance, alignment scoring, prioritisation, capacity planning and action planning. These can be adapted for annual planning cycles, quarterly portfolio reviews, investment committees and transformation governance.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30, with approximately 6.5 contact hours. The five days cover governance, alignment, demand, prioritisation, portfolio balancing, capacity, finance, risk, reporting and portfolio change.

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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