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Managing multiple projects across teams, departments, and timelines is hard. But with the right project portfolio management process, you can optimize how you plan, prioritize, and execute, so at the end of the day, you are making sure the work you’re doing is the right work, and is moving your business forward.
Without a PPM process, it’s easy to get stuck juggling disconnected projects, overloading your team, and wasting time on efforts that don’t deliver business value. But with the right approach, you can prioritize projects smarter, allocate resources better, and make informed decisions with confidence.
PPM gives you structure. It gives your leaders visibility. It gives your team focus. And it provides your business a better return on investment when it comes to time and resources.
This blog will show you how to build a PPM process that’s simple, practical, and built to drive better project outcomes.
Project portfolio management (PPM) gives you a way to select projects and stay focused on strategic objectives. It helps you stop wasting time on work that doesn’t serve your organizational goals.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) calls PPM critical for making better decisions, reducing risk, and maximizing business value. With it, you’re not just managing an individual project, you’re managing the entire portfolio of projects in context.
Instead of asking, “Can we do this project?” you’re asking, “Should we? Does it fit our strategic goals? Do we have the capacity? Will it deliver value?”
That shift in your decision-making approach changes everything.
A strong PPM process helps organizations:
Before you do anything else, get leadership on board. If your stakeholders don’t see the value, your process won’t stick. You need them to back your priorities and help remove blockers.
Don’t just pitch a process for the sake of it. Show what changes. Talk about real benefits: fewer missed deadlines, better margins, less rework. Give examples. Show how a lack of alignment has caused problems before.
If your team has struggled with duplicated efforts, conflicting priorities, or resourcing headaches, use those examples to explain why a consistent PPM process matters.
Having a good project portfolio manager is just as important as the process itself. You need someone who can see the big picture and keep everyone focused on the right work.
This person should:
Whether you establish a dedicated project management office (PMO) or assign portfolio management responsibilities to an existing role, ensure clear ownership. Without it, priorities get muddled and the PPM process loses traction.
You don’t need a rigid system, but you do need structure. A standardized approach keeps everyone on the same page and reduces confusion.
Here are four steps to help you standardize your PPM process and achieve better results.
Start by taking inventory. Identify your strategic goals, then map out every project your team is working on or considering. You need a clear picture of the work and how it connects to business goals.
Once you have that full visibility, analyze each project:
Look at strategic alignment, urgency, and capacity. You won’t always have room to do everything, and that’s okay. The goal is to choose the work that delivers the most value and supports your business strategy.
Consider factors like:
Revisit the plan regularly using real-time data. Timelines shift. Goals evolve. Don’t treat your portfolio as a fixed plan, but rather use it as a living roadmap that adapts to changing business objectives.
Don’t try to manage a portfolio using spreadsheets and disconnected tools. It slows everything down and creates gaps in visibility.
You need a platform that connects your projects, resources, budgets, and timelines in one place:
That’s where an all-in-one solution like Accelo comes in. It’s designed for professional services teams that need to manage project delivery from quote to cash, without the complexity.
For example, when the Accelo team manages internal implementation projects, they rely on the same workflows they recommend to clients. Everything from kickoff to project closeout lives in the platform – assignments, schedules, approvals, and status updates. The system keeps everyone aligned and reduces the chance of work slipping through the cracks.
Because the process is visible and repeatable, new team members can ramp up quickly. Work isn’t dependent on one project manager or hidden in someone’s inbox. That kind of structure helps teams scale.
Marcussen Consulting, a UK-based tax advisory firm, had no shortage of incoming work. But they lacked a process to evaluate which projects and clients were worth their time. Their leadership team couldn’t answer basic questions like: Are these projects profitable? Where is the team spending time? Which clients are helping us grow?
Without a functioning PPM process, they were stuck in reactive mode. They used multiple disconnected systems, one for timesheets, another for sales, and another for accounting, and were buried in manual admin work. Billing alone required four people and hours of back-and-forth. There was no centralized view of client communications or project performance.
By adopting Accelo, they put a repeatable, visible process in place. They were finally able to:
The team reduced their client base from 300 to a focused 50 clients who were profitable and aligned with their business goals.
That shift was only possible with clarity from a real PPM process made possible by Accelo. By seeing which projects added value and which ones drained limited resources, they aligned the business around smarter decision-making. Productivity jumped 20%. Profitability nearly doubled. And they did it without hiring more people.
Marcussen Consulting’s founder David Marcussen said it best:
“Accelo has enabled us to very clearly identify the types of clients and work that make money. As a result, it’s contributed to massive changes in the landscape of the business.”
A good PPM process isn’t something you can just set and forget. It needs constant review for optimal results as your business changes.
You should be checking project performance against goals. If something’s off track, ask why. If a high-priority project isn’t moving, find out what’s blocking it. Realign as needed.
Use actual data to support changes. Don’t just go by gut feeling. That’s why tools that track progress and generate reports are important. You need numbers to support your decisions.
Larson Accounting Group is a good example of this in action. They serve more than 6,000 clients across the U.S. and offer over 100 services, but for years, they didn’t have a way to assess how those services were performing or which were worth continuing. Without a system to categorize and evaluate projects, tax season became chaotic. Work was scattered across spreadsheets, data was duplicated, and decisions were made without context.
After implementing Accelo, Larson created a central view of every service and ticket in their pipeline. That visibility helped them better allocate resources and use custom project statuses and triggers to standardize their work. They could now evaluate project types, client needs, and team capacity in one place. This structure allowed them to prioritize the most important work during their busiest seasons, and do it with less stress and better accuracy.
Over three years, they grew from 20 to 30 employees, managing more than 40,000 tickets and 11,000 projects on the platform. By linking their ticketing and project data with business insights, Larson was able to strengthen their PPM process and use that structure to scale. They’re still expanding automation and reporting, but the foundation they’ve built lets them grow without losing control.
Even with a good plan, it’s easy to fall into common traps that undermine your portfolio management effectiveness.
A project portfolio management process helps you decide what to work on, when to work on it, and how to do it with the resources you have. It’s not just for project managers. It’s a framework the whole business can use to stay focused and aligned.
You don’t need to overcomplicate it. Just start with structure. Create unified visibility. Use the right tools. And keep reviewing what’s working and what isn’t.
Focus on these key elements:
Accelo is built to support this kind of work. If you’re ready to make your process easier and your projects more profitable, book a demo today.
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