PACE (Product And Cycle-time Excellence) is a gated methodology for developing new products faster and more predictably, created in the late 1980s at 📝PRTM and sold as one of the firm's branded consulting products.
Michael E. McGrath developed PACE while building PRTM's product development practice and formalized it in Setting the PACE in Product Development (1996), which became the reference text for the method. The book treats product development as a manageable business process built on time, quality, talent, and resources, rather than as an unpredictable creative act.
The framework has seven elements. Four operate at the project level: a phase-review process with decision gates, small cross-functional core teams empowered to make project decisions, a structured development process, and disciplined use of development tools and techniques. Three operate across the portfolio: a product strategy process, a technology management approach aligned with business goals, and pipeline management for prioritizing projects and allocating resources.
PACE was adopted by some of the largest technology and industrial companies. PRTM itself was acquired by PwC in 2011.