What is Business Resource Management?
The environment in which modern businesses operate demands that
managers continually and increasingly refine their business's
operational efficiency to maintain a competitive edge.
Even within small manufacturing and service businesses however,
the complexity of inter-related activities (e.g. development,
production, promotion, moves, shut-down) and their corresponding
human, physical and financial resources, can be hard to visualise
- let alone manage effectively.
At the core, is the need to:
- attribute resources (people, plant, cash) to activities or
events
- define and visualise the logical relationships between these
activities
- monitor the progress of the activities and the costs of their
associated resources over time
- provide a sound basis for management intervention
While these needs describe 'traditional' Project Management
(e.g. within the construction industry), when applied to the far
broader activities of a modern business, they are better described
as Business Resource Management.
Business Resource Management requires that the 'traditional'
Project Manager learns to understand how to apply his skills in
support of the broader activities of other specialist managers and
provide his colleagues with the task visualisation and monitoring
tools they need for more effective management.
Often the key task will be to provide an overall summary view of
the business's resources and associated activities to the
directors - which can be 'drilled down' to provide line managers
with information customised to suit their individual needs.
This scenario provides a basis for an organisation within a
business that provides Project Management services in respect of
projects or portfolios of projects that support the business
objectives of a changing organisation.
In addition, the organisation needs to establish programme
management roles to look after the portfolios and to determine
priorities and resolve resource conflicts.
At the highest level, the board and senior managers need to
have not only an appreciation of the project approach but how
project management is used at the other levels. The objectives at
other levels (programme, project and task) will be to increase
competence at both individual and company level in definition,
planning and execution.
The future line manager must take a prime role in reshaping and
transforming organisations. The tools and methods available to him
must allow him to visualise, monitor and control.
He needs to incorporate aspects of both portfolio management and
project management so that training at board level or programme
management level should provide an insight as to the complete
business life cycle in project terms.
The overall educational philosophy must be to guide senior
management organisation towards a 'Project' approach and use tried
and trusted 'conventional' project management education and
training for the detail of methods and techniques.
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