Certified SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management 6.0 (LPM) Course

The Certified SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management 6.0 course is an intensive class for senior leaders and key stakeholders who want to gain the practical knowledge, tools, and techniques that will help them connect strategy to execution so that they can create a culture of innovation, flexibility, and speed. This class will help attendees implement the LPM functions of strategy and investment funding, Agile portfolio operations, and Lean governance. After successful completion of the class, attendees will have the opportunity to take and pass the course exam to become a Certified SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management (LPM).  

Why Lean Portfolio Management?

Lean Portfolio Management addresses the following challenges: 

• In any business, enterprise, or government agency, there are usually more great ideas than can realistically be implemented. How do leaders choose which idea will advance their strategy and achieve their mission? 
• Understanding how the “everyday work” connects to the larger organizational mission and vision. 
• Traditional portfolio management is too slow and cumbersome to keep up with the pace of digital disruption, which puts additional pressure on the organization to deliver faster with a higher degree of uncertainty
• Using the wrong metrics and data to guide investment decisions 

Certified SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management 6.0 Learning Outcomes

• Understand and describe the benefits of LPM versus traditional portfolio governance
• Connect the portfolio to the organizational strategy 
• Understand how the portfolio and Agile Release Trains (ARTs) collaborate to analyze innovation initiatives and evaluate their potential business impact
• Shift from a project- to a product-focus that maximizes life-cycle profitability, value delivery, outcomes, and customer value
• Establish portfolio flow with the Portfolio Kanban
• Learn how to create and communicate a vision for your portfolio and strategic themes to decentralize decision-making and accelerate value delivery
• Create alignment and transparency between leadership and the people who develop and maintain portfolio products and services
• Learn new ways to measure portfolio performance 
• Understand ways to build and support operational excellence within the organization 
• Experience building a Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) roadmap that shows high-level milestones, identifies what LPM constructs are missing from your current state, illustrates potential challenges and risks, and establishes an action plan of where to go from here

Course Logistics 

For private courses, we will work with your team to identify the best schedule for your group. We typically take into account timing (making sure to avoid heavier workloads so attendees can focus), pacing for optimal material delivery, time zones, and learning retention.

Why 3 days versus 2 days? 

There is a lot of dense material that needs to be covered in order to take the exam. This means moving very quickly through the material equating to a PowerPoint death march if we try to cram it in 2 days. Instead, we recommend that there be enough time for discussion, exercises, and review of material so that attendees are more prepared to pass the exam and implement class takeaways. 

We are happy that attendees are making an investment in their organization and professional development! We understand that this is also a significant time investment. As such, we will provide breaks to check email and office communication. However, we expect full participation from attendees while the training is in session. Those who do not participate will not be eligible to take the exam or receive the certification. 

Who benefits from attending the Certified SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management 6.0 course? 

This course is designed for leaders and stakeholders responsible for the Portfolio or Program Management function and for key business stakeholders. This includes but is not limited to: 

• Executives and leaders (CIOs, CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, and VPs)
• Enterprise architects
• Product managers and solution managers
• Business unit managers
• Program office personnel
• SPCs and enterprise Agile coaches
• Human resources
• Release Train Engineers (RTEs)
• Epic Owners

Certified SAFe^® Lean Portfolio Management 6.0 Prerequisites

All are welcome to attend the course, regardless of experience. However, having a baseline understanding of the following will make the training more effective : 

• Familiarity with Agile concepts and principles
• Attended a Leading SAFe^® or SAFe^® PO/PM course 
• Experience working in a SAFe environment

What do class attendants receive?  

• A free 2-hr portfolio Kanban workshop (we will work with you to set up your portfolio Kanban) 
• Course certificate of completion
• Preparation and eligibility to take the SAFe^® LPM certification exam
• One-year membership to the SAFe^® Community Platform
• One certification exam attempt