The new initiative sounds urgent, so it is added to the list. None of the existing projects loses scope, people or a deadline. Before starting another project, show what it requires from the same business and decide which commitments change. A portfolio is the set of initiatives competing for attention, not just a presentation of attractive ideas.
APM's portfolio discussion considers value and decision authority. The admission card below focuses on whether to start now, finish existing work or make a deliberate substitution. It is different from a work-in-progress limit inside one service workflow.
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash.
Include the business work outside the project team
List active initiatives and their near-term demands on sponsors, reviewers, operations and specialist contributors. Include transition and adoption effort. A project can need little builder time while still consuming the manager required by every other initiative.
Check work reported as nearly finished. What acceptance, operational preparation or benefit-enabling task remains? “Only ten per cent left” is weak evidence if the remaining decision is the one blocking use.
Prepare a project admission card
For the proposed start, record:
Business need and why it matters now.
Minimum next commitment and evidence expected.
Shared roles needed during the relevant period.
Existing work that will move or lose capacity.
Consequences of starting later or finishing another initiative first.
Dependencies and important timing constraints.
Authorised choice and review trigger.
Avoid a universal rule that all current projects must finish before anything new starts. A new obligation or changed business need may justify substitution. The point is to make that substitution visible.
A hypothetical finish-first choice
A service business has a completed tool awaiting operational acceptance. The same operations lead is asked to begin a second implementation. Starting it would delay the acceptance work and leave the first tool unused.
The sponsor compares a bounded effort to finish the first transition with the consequence of delaying the second discovery. It may reserve a short acceptance window first, then reassess the new initiative with the operating capacity freed by closure.
The example does not guarantee that finishing always delivers more value. An obsolete first project might need an orderly stop instead. Recheck purpose as well as remaining effort.
Record the work that will not happen
An admission decision should identify displaced commitments or genuinely additional capacity. Do not preserve every original date and expect individuals to make the trade-off privately.
Communicate the result to affected owners. Where supplier, client or financial commitments are involved, obtain the necessary decisions through their proper routes.
Review the portfolio as evidence changes
Inspect active work, blocked decisions and recently completed outcomes, not just new requests. Remove obsolete proposals from the apparent pipeline and distinguish authorised work from ideas.
The small-team planning guide supports each initiative's delivery logic. For the connected task, read Should You Pause or Stop a Troubled Project?. If every new project starts without a decision about existing commitments, discuss your project requirements.
