Course Taxonomy: Project / Portfolio

Microsoft Power Automate

Posted on September 8, 2025 by -

Part 1: Overview of Power Automate Capabilities

  1. Power Automate capabilities
  2. Introduction to the Flow Design environment
  3. Types of Flows
    1. Automated
    2. Instant
    3. Scheduled
  4. Basic Components of a Flow
    1. Connections
    2. Triggers
    3. Actions
    4. Conditions
    5. Loops
  5. Flow templates
  6. Flow Integration with SharePoint
  7. Sharing Flows with Other Users
  8. Power Automate Licensing

Part 2: Creating Flows

  1. Creating a new Flow
  2. Selection of a trigger
  3. Selection of actions
  4. Connection Information
  5. Naming and Saving a Flow
  6. Running the Flow
  7. Editing a Flow and re-running
  8. “Debugging” Flows

Lab: Creating a Flow

  1. Create a Flow that does the following:
    1. Creates a SharePoint list item when a new Form is submitted
    2. Sends Teams Channel Notification
  2. Create a Flow that does the following:
    1. Runs on a set schedule
    2. Retrieves items from a SharePoint list
    3. Updates the SharePoint item

Part 3: Creating Approval Flows

  1. Overview of Flow approval capabilities
  2. Approval center
  3. Responding to an approval request

Lab: Creation of an Approval Flow

  1. Use the Built-in Approval Process in SharePoint Document Libraries
  2. Create a custom Approval Process Flow
    1. Create a manual flow for a selected SharePoint Document
    2. Create an Approval Process using Approvals
    3. Update document metadata based on the approval outcome

Part 4: Using Variables and Expressions

  1. Using variables
    1. Types of variables
    2. How and when to use variables
  2. Flow Expressions
    1. Expressions overview
    2. Expression categories (String, Math, Date/Time, additional)
    3. Expression syntax

Lab: Using Expressions

  1. Build a custom work flow
    1. Using Variables and Expressions to transform data
    2. Calculate and format date and time data
    3. Create Documents with values of variables calculated in the flow
    4. Convert Word Documents to Sharepoint
    5. Email completed PDF documents to users

Certified Technical Program Manager

Posted on June 25, 2025 by -

Section 1: Introduction to Technical Program Management

  • What is Program Management
  • What is different about Technical Program Management
  • Brief History of Technical Program Management
  • Technical Program Structure → Organizational overview, Team Structure, Roles &
  • Responsibilities
  • Role of a Technical Program Manager → Technical vs Non-Technical Orgs
  • Domain Oriented Technical Program Managers (Infrastructure, EBI, Ops, Cyber Security,
  • Mobile, Web, Backend etc.)
  • Team Exercise – Skills for Successful Technical Program Management

Section 2: Technology in Technical Program Management

  • Technical Capabilities of a TPM
  • Fundamentals of High-Level System Design → Scaling (Vertical vs. Horizontal) Processing
  • & Pre-processing, Queuing, Caching, Decoupling, Microservices, Load Balancing, Logging
  • & Metrics, noSQL, Sharding etc.
  • Low Level Design → Object Oriented Design, Design Patterns, Core Classes & Objects,
  • Relationships, Methods etc.
  • Building Large Scale Distributed Systems
  • Technical Goals in a Program Lifecycle
  • Team Exercise – Technical System Design Case Study

Section 3: Program Initiation (Requirements & Design)

  • Problem Statement – Defining the Program Vision
  • Pitfalls of Requirements (Agile & Waterfall) → Waterfall Too Much, Agile Too Little
  • User-Centric Functional & Non-Functional Requirements
  • Intrinsic & Extrinsic Technical Requirements & Architecture Design
  • Three Ts of Program Planning → Team, Technology & Time (TTT)
  • Scope Management & Common Program Mishaps
  • Theory of Estimation → Relative & Absolute
  • Political Management & Planning → Organizational Limitations,
  • Cadence & Artifacts Delivery Set-up
  • Team Exercise – Initiation of a Technical Program in a Non-Technical, Political Landscape

Section 4: Technical Program Execution

  • Agile Sprints Execution
  • Effective Communication within a Technical Program
  • Measuring Team Performance & Technical Progress
  • Responding to Program Management Bureaucracy
  • Program Execution Pitfalls – DSU Fails, No Retros, No POs, No Testing in Sprints, Backlog
  • Readiness, Vendor Management, Resource Sharing etc.
  • Management of Technical Debt
  • Technical Deployment Patterns, Roll-out & Release Management – Blue Green
  • Deployments, Dark Launches, A/B Testing, Canary Releases, Feature Flags etc.
  • Leading a DevOps, DevSecOps & Site Reliability Engineering Model
  • Gaining Business Intelligence – Telemetry, TDD, HDD, Logging, Monitoring
  • Team Exercise – Creation of a Robust Execution Structure across the SDLC

Section 5: Program Control & Reporting

  • Controlling & Reporting at Different Levels of a Program – Team vs Line Management vs
  • Senior Leadership
  • Technical Metrics Gathering & Reporting – Code Coverage, Automation, Deployment
  • Frequency, MTTR etc.
  • People Performance & Program Management Metrics Reporting – Statuses, RAG etc.
  • Reporting Frequency & Audience
  • Strategic & Political Escalation
  • Scaling, Expanding & Distributing the Technical Solution across the Organization
  • Team Exercise – Metrics & Reporting at All Levels of a Program

Section 6: Case Study Program

  • Technical Program Management Simulation
  • Team Exercise – Designing a modern application microservice from initiation to technical
  • execution, communication and reporting while dealing with challenges

AI for Project Management

Posted on May 9, 2024 by -

Part 1: Generative AI Enablement

  • AI Capabilities and Limitations
  • Best Practices for Interacting with LLMs
  • Identifying Automation Use Cases

Part 2: AI-Enhanced Project Management Environments

  • AI and Project Management Tooling
  • Implementing an Internal LLM

Part 3: Applying AI in daily PM work

  • Content generation and communication assistance
  • Dataset identification and capture
  • Sentiment Analysis for Stakeholder Feedback
  • Search and Information retrieval and extraction
  • Text Summarisation for Efficient Reporting

Part 4: Implementing AI within a Project Management Framework

  • Project Lifecycle and Governance
  • Risk, Stakeholder and Change Management

Part 5: Ethical Considerations in AI-assisted Projects

  • Data Privacy and Security
  • AI Bias
  • Legal and Compliance Considerations

Part 6: Developing your AI-enabled Project Management Approach

  • Current State Assessment
  • Creating an Adoption Roadmap

Part 7: Future Trends

Aha! for Product Managers

Posted on January 2, 2024 by -

Part 1: Aha! Roadmaps – Workspace Organization

  • Hierarchy Concepts
    • Aha! records deep dive
      • How each record relates to each other
        • Define and build out 
          • Product platform vs. product line
          • Solution offerings
          • Product components
          • Enabling/disabling Epics
        • What to keep in mind around integrations
          • Jira
          • ADO
          • Salesforce
      • Where are user stories?
        • Requirements vs. Activities
      • How granular to get?
        • Get as granular as you need to get as a PdM to align strategy w/execution 
          • Aha! is not meant to replace your Software dev tool, it’s a complement
      • Hierarchy report 
        • Summarize & analyze relationships across goals, initiatives, releases, & features
    • Q and A for your hierarchy

Part 2: Strategy Configuration

  • Goals and Objectives
    • Aha! best practices: Using OKRs
      • OKR Overview
      • Why did Aha! use this as the standard?
      • Use Goal for Objective, and Initiative for Key Result
      • What if my org doesn’t use OKRs?
  • Visualizing your strategy
    • Using Strategy templates
      • Visualize your strategy with a roadmap
  • Linking your work to strategy
    • Structure your workspace hierarchy
    • Capture goals and initiatives
    • Connect work to product strategy
      • Manual or automatic progress tracking
  • Scorecards + Worksheets
    • Common scoring methods
    • Automated scorecard metrics (E+)
    • Custom worksheets (E+)x
  • Reports to show organizational strategy
    • How to calculate from child goals
    • How to calculate from child initiatives
    • How to calculate from workspace initiatives
    • How to calculate from releases or features
    • How to calculate the progress of releases from features
    • How to calculate the progress of features from requirements, remaining estimates, or to-dos
  • Supporting SAFe
    • Hierarchy, terminology, fields, and layouts
    • Define and build your strategy
    • Identify program epic, features, and requirements
    • Planing program increments and releases
    • Reporting
  • Risks
    • RAG workflow statuses
    • Manage and resolve risks
    • Track risks and create a RAID lg
    • Risk reporting
  • Reporting 
    • Report Module structure and folder creation
    • Good reporting hygiene 
      • Data and calculations
    • Using internal titles and API titles
    • Presentations
      • Presentation Themes
      • Edit and Publish
      • Security and Access

Part 3: Ideas Portals

  • Implementing an ideas process into your production operations model
    • Work requests (Enterprise+)
  • Private vs. public portals
  • Discover trending ideas
    • Reporting and Charting
  • Review and respond to ideas
    • Ideas Advanced (E+)
      • Automation (E+)
  • Keep customers up to date
    • Public vs. private comments

Part 4: Capacity Planning (E+) 

  • Individual
    • Mapping fields to Jira
    • Add estimates
      • Estimate best practices
  • Team
    • Mapping fields to Jira
    • Add estimates
    • Industry best practices
      • How to estimate when starting a new team
      • How to estimate based on prior work done
      • How to forecast future work
  • Reporting 
    • Visualize your team and individual capacity

Aha! for Administrators

Posted on January 2, 2024 by -

Part 1: Configuration

  • Hierarchy
    • Aha records deep dive
      • How each record relates to each other
        • Define and build out 
          • Product platform vs. product line
          • Solution offerings
          • Product components
          • Enabling/disabling Epics
      • What to keep in mind around integrations
        • Jira
        • ADO
        • Salesforce
  • Workspace configuration
    • Workspace templates (E+)
    • Customization types and what they can and cannot do.
      • Workspaces
        • Enabling/disabling Epics
      • Teams
      • Statuses & Workflows
      • Workflow approval groups
      • Broadcasts
      • Scorecards
      • Automated scorecard metrics (E+)
      • Time frames
      • Tags
        • Best Practice 
      • Custom fields 
        • Internal names + API Key considerations
        • Worksheet Functions
        • Copies of fields for different applications
          • Affects reporting and Worksheets
      • Custom layouts
        • Ideas vs. Ideas portal layouts
      • Advanced custom layouts (E+)
      • Custom tables (E+)
        • Linking custom tables 
      • Custom Worksheets (E+)
      • Automations (E+)
        • Work Requests
  • Automations (E+)
    • Common Use Cases
    • Limitations
  • Ideas Advanced (E+)
    • Common Use Cases
    • Configuring your own CNAME portal
  • Capacity Planning (E+)
    • Common Use Cases
    • Limitations
    • Team capacity report
    • Resolving a capacity conflict
  • Integrations 
    • Setup & Configuration of common integrations
      • Jira
        • Best Practices: one to many / many-to-many linking, mapping to text fields, mapping Sprints -> Releases
      • Slack
        • Best Practices + keep in mind
      • Salesforce
        • Best Practices + keep in mind
      • Aha’s API
        • Best Practices + keep in mind
    • Audit logs and how to interpret them
    • Bulk import/export
      • Templates
      • Common issues and errors

Part 2: Data Management + Monitoring

  • User Roles and Management
    • Custom roles (E+)
    • Bulk user management
  • Security and Single sign-on
    • IP Address based access control (E+)
    • Integrating with Security webhooks (E+)
  • Monitoring account activity (E+)Where does the data go when it’s deleted?
  • How to recover data
  • Record history
  • Bulk changing records
  • Reporting
    • Report Module structure and folder creation
    • Good reporting hygiene 
    • Using internal titles and API titles in fields
  • Backing up your account (E+)

Part 3: Troubleshooting

  • A workflow to follow when data is missing
  • A workflow to follow when data is presenting incorrectly in a record
  • A workflow to follow when data is presenting incorrectly or is missing in a report

AgilePM Foundation

Posted on July 18, 2022 by -

Part 1: The Agile Project Management Process

  • Agile project management framework
  • Configuring the Agile Project Lifecycle

Part 2: Products and Deliverables

  • Management, business, and solution focus

Part 3: Agile Project Teams

  • Agile project roles and responsibilities
  • Agile project team empowerment
  • Agile project team structure

Part 4: Agile Project Management Techniques

  • Facilitated Workshops
  • MoSCoW Prioritization
  • Iterative Development
  • Timeboxing
  • Modelling

Part 5: Project Management and Control

  • Agile requirements
  • Agile planning
  • Agile risk management
  • Testing, quality, and maintainability
  • Agile estimating and measurement
  • Agile configuration management

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification Prep Boot Camp

Posted on March 25, 2022 by -

Part 1: Introduction and PMP Exam overview

  • Details about the class format and structure
  • Set training expectations
  • High-level overview of class curriculum
  • Learn About the PMI Application Process
  • Identify exam preparation key methodologies
  • The Exam Itself

Part 2: An Introduction to the PMBOK® Guide

  • Project Management Background
  • Foundational Elements of Project Management
  • The Relationship of Portfolios, Programs, Projects, and Operational Management
  • About the Project Management Domains
  • Complete Knowledge Area Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 3: Understanding the Project Environment

  • Enterprise Environmental Factors
  • Organizational Process Assets (OPAs)
  • Types of Organizational Systems
  • More About Project Management Domains
  • Complete Framework Knowledge Area Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 4: The Role of the Project Manager

  • Defining the Project Manager
  • The Project Manager’s Sphere of Influence
  • Competencies of a Project Manager
  • The Relationship with Project Management Domains
  • Complete Framework Knowledge Area Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 5: Creating a High-Performing Team 

  • Build a Team
  • Define Team Ground Rules
  • Negotiate Project Agreements
  • Empower Team Members and Stakeholders
  • Train Team Members and Stakeholders
  • Engage and Support Virtual Teams
  • Build Shared Understanding About a Project
  • Complete Module Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 6: Starting the Project

  • Determine Appropriate Project Methodology/Methods and Practices
  • Plan and Manage Scope
  • Plan and Manage Budget and Resources
  • Plan and Manage Schedule
  • Plan and Manage Quality of Product and Deliverables
  • Integrate Project Planning Activities
  • Plan and Manage Procurement
  • Establish Project Governance Structure
  • Plan and Manage Project/Phase Closure
  • Complete Knowledge Area Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 7: Doing the Work

  • Assess and Manage Risks
  • Execute Project to Deliver Business Value
  • Manage Communications
  • Engage Stakeholders
  • Create Project Artifacts
  • Manage Project Changes
  • Manage Project Issues
  • Ensure Knowledge Transfer for Project Continuity
  • Complete Knowledge Area Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 8: Keeping the Team on Track

  • Lead a Team
  • Support Team Performance
  • Address and Remove Impediments, Obstacles, and Blockers
  • Manage Conflict
  • Collaborate with Stakeholders
  • Mentor Relevant Stakeholders
  • Apply Emotional Intelligence to Promote Team Performance
  • Complete Knowledge Area Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 9: Keeping the Business in Mind

  • Manage Compliance Requirements
  • Evaluate and Deliver Project Benefits and Value
  • Evaluate and Address Internal and External Business Environment Changes
  • Support Organizational Change
  • Employ Continuous Process Improvement
  • Complete Knowledge Area Test
  • Complete PMP Mock Exam (LITE)

Part 10: Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

  • Ethical Application of Project Management
  • Complete Exercises

Part 11: Course Review Areas

  • General Review
  • Formulas to Know for the Exam
  • Before You Take the Exam
  • Tricks for Taking the Exam
  • Common Project Management Errors and Pitfalls

 

Lean Portfolio Management

Posted on December 22, 2021 by -

Part 1: What Problems Does LPM Solve?

  • Align Work to Organization Strategy
  • Use Limited Resources for Maximum Value
  • Increase Decision-making Velocity
  • Adapt to Changing Needs
  • Enable Agile Execution
  • Ensure Value Delivery

Exercise: Brainstorm problems you have that LPM could fix

Part 2: The LPM Framework

  • Build Portfolios of Products (Not Projects)
  • Link Portfolios to Strategy
  • Intake, Fund & Prioritize Work
    • Participatory Budgeting
  • Oversee Work
  • Govern Portfolios
  • Align With Lean Principles
  • Use Lean Startup to Prove Value of Work

Exercise: Contrast LPM vs. the approach we use

Part 3: Establish Portfolios

  • Distill Mission into Strategic Themes
  • Define Objectives for each Strategic Theme
  • Quantify Key Results for each Objective
  • Map Products/Solutions to Strategic Themes
  • Arrange Products/Solutions into one or more Portfolios
  • Define Each Portfolio:
    • Brainstorm the Portfolio Vision
    • Document the Portfolio Canvas (Current State)
    • Agree on the Portfolio Canvas Desired Future State
    • Brainstorm Epics to get us to the Future State
    • Create a Portfolio Kanban
    • Establish Lean Budget Guardrails

Exercise: For your own organization, Map Strategic Themes to Portfolios

Part 4: Triage Incoming Work Ideas

  • Determine: Manage at Portfolio Level?
  • Document as an Epic (Deliverable)
  • Assign an Epic Owner
  • Build the Lean Business Case
    • Solution Alternatives
    • Affected Value Stream(s)
    • Benefit Hypothesis(es)
    • MVP that proves Hypotheses
    • Rough Cost Estimate for MVP
    • Rough Cost Estimate for Entire Epic
  • Approve Epic for Budgeting

Exercise: Write Epics w/Lean Business Cases

Part 5: Budget for the Work

  • Overview of the Budgeting Process
  • Short Funding Cycles
  • Inputs to the Budgeting Process
    • Participatory Budgeting Event
  • Analyze Participatory Budget Results
  • Adjust Value Stream Budgets

Exercise: Plan the Budget Cycle for a Portfolio

Part 6: Minimum Viable Product

  • (When Agile Team has capacity)
  • Pull Approved/Budgeted Epic
  • Plan, Build MVP with Epic Owner
  • Deploy finished MVP, collect data
  • Pivot/Persevere/Stop Decision
  • Persevere: Prioritize w/other work

Exercise: Decompose MVP into Stories

Part 7: Manage the Portfolio

  • Maintain a Unified Portfolio Roadmap
  • Coordinate work across Value Streams
    • For Business Benefits
      • for Technical Reasons
      • for Cadence & Efficiency
      • Ensure Integration often
  • Work with Agile Teams:
    • Decompose Epics into Features & Stories
  • Plan Release & Deployments

Exercise: Identify Coordination opportunities among Value Streams

Part 8: Portfolio Governance

  • Governing the Portfolio
  • Managing Risk, Conflict, Variance
  • Lean Portfolio Metrics
  • Portfolio Performance Metrics
  • Value Stream Metrics
  • Incremental Quality/Security/Compliance

Exercise: Identify Valuable Portfolio Metrics

Part 9: Adopting Lean Portfolio Management

  • Move to a Product Team Structure
  • Fund Value Streams (not Projects)
  • Use Rolling-Wave Plans & Budgets
  • Match Work to Value Stream Capacity
  • Develop Incrementally
  • Prove Hypotheses with MVP First
  • Continuously Improve LPM

Exercise: Map your LPM Journey

Project Management Fundamentals

Posted on January 15, 2021 by -

Part 1: Foundations
1.    Formal vs. informal project management
2.    Project Management Institute (PMI)® framework
3.    Project management life cycle
Part 2: Initiating
1.    Role of the project manager
2.    Project charter
3.    Stakeholder identification and assessment
4.    Progressive elaboration
Part 3: Planning
1.    Planning around project constraints
2.    SMART objectives
3.    Converting objectives into requirements
4.    Decomposition of requirements into a work breakdown structure
5.    Developing a work breakdown structure dictionary
6.    Principles of estimating time and cost
7.    Analyzing work and estimating duration of work packages
8.    Determining sequence of work packages
9.    Network diagramming and critical path analysis
10.    Budgeting resources and cost control
11.    Ensuring that all management responsibility areas are included in the project plan
12.    Analyzing risks for probability and impact
13.    Mitigating and planning risk contingencies
14.    Preparing baselines for scope, time, and cost
15.    Obtaining stakeholder sign-off
Part 4: Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling
1.    Team-building principles and priorities
2.    Status and performance reporting
3.    Management by exception
4.    Keeping stakeholders informed and involved
5.    Steering performance back to the baseline
6.    Integrated change controls
Part 5:  Closing
1.    Transitioning the product or service
2.    Capturing lessons learned for the organization
3.    Final report to stakeholders
Exercises:
1.    Formal vs. Informal Project Management
2.    Analyze Stakeholders
3.    Convert Vague Objectives into SMART Objectives
4.    Create a Work Breakdown Structure
5.    Estimate Effort and Duration for Work Packages
6.    Perform Network Diagramming and Determine Critical Path
7.    Estimate Resource Costs for Work Packages
8.    Analyze and Plan for Risk
9.    Manage Project Change
10.    Review Lessons Learned

 

Portfolio and Program Management (ICP-DAS)

Posted on October 17, 2020 by -

Part 1:

  1. Introduction – Agile Mindset preview
  2. What is Portfolio and Program Management
  3. Strategic Alignment
  4. Lean Thinking
    1. Customer Defines Value
  5. Ideas/Concepts/Realities that are driving the world
  6. Speed of Change
  7. Innovation
  8. Disruption
  9. Lean Startup
  10. Adaptive Planning
  11. Five Levels of Planning
  12. Geodesic Planning – the shortest path to results
  13. Map the Value Stream
  14. A Process that delivers Value to the Customer
  15. Continuous Flow
  16. Pull not Push
  17. Strive for Perfection
  18. Eliminate Waste
  19. A System designed to produce the right results
    1. The right paradigms and mental models
    2. Transition into Building a System
  20. The Agile Paradigm
  21. Manifesto
  22. Principles
  23. The Agile Team – A System
  24. Systems Thinking – Seeing the Whole
  25. Creating a System that produces desired results
  26. Agile Practices – part of the System
  27. Summary of the Paradigm Change
  28. The Agile Game – might end up as begin of day 2

Part 2:

  1. Agile Program Management – Building a Business Value Generator
  2. Vision
  3. Time
  4. Culture
  5. Vision – What is our Value Proposition
  6. The Ideation Process
  7. Getting Ideas that will produce Value to the Customer
  8. Ethnographic Research
  9. Effective Communication
  10. The User – Roles and Personas
  11. Brainstorming
  12. The A3 Process of Problem Solving
  13. Making Investment Decision
  14. Time – Execution
  15. Scaling Agile above the Team to the Enterprise
  16. Waves of Agile
  17. Scaling Methodologies
  18. Similar Organizational Structures
  19. SAFe – Digging Deeper into Scaling to provide Program Management
  20. The Idea Funnel
  21. Review Process
  22. Analysis Queue
  23. Implementation
  24. Release Planning (PI Planning)
  25. The Iteration Calendar
  26. Coordination –
  27. Scrum of Scrums
  28. PO Sync
  29. Release Management
  30. Retrospectives
  31. Done
  32. The Definition of Done
  33. Levels
  34. Culture
  35. Transforming your organization
  36. John Kotter path to Change
  37. Getting to a re-wiring – Culture is Anchored
  38. Wrap-up