Process-based management is a management approach that governs the mindset and actions in an organization. It is a philosophy of how an organization manages its operations, aligned with and supported by the vision, mission and values of the organization. The process is the basis on which decisions are made and actions are taken. It is oriented toward achieving a vision rather than targeting specific activities and tasks of individual functions.
The general process is that the vision determines the necessary strategy, structure and human resource requirements for the organization. It can also be used on the project management level in that a clear vision of a project defines the strategy, structure and resources required to achieve success. The project process continues with the implementation of the tasks and activities required to achieve the vision.
Most companies are focused around organizational performance such as budgets, incentives, costs, and skill development. Process Based Management adds these performance measures but in an operational way that adds to the organizational measures. Over time, the process measures take a stronger role. The "Order to Cash" process for instance is what brings revenue into a company, but often, conventional companies are so focused on their individual departments that the cross functional process is an afterthought. Performance suffers because of this. CAM-I is currently performing research on this concept. (www.cam-i.org)
Needs to cash is the core process for many organizations. Order to cash ignores all that must happen before receiving the order. From customer needs to cash in the bank focuses attention on the organization's processes for learning of customer needs, translating those needs into product specifications, translating the product specifications into production process specifications, realizing the product by running the production processes, delivering the product and invoicing for the delivery of conforming product.
Since 1986, Quality Management International (QMI) has used and improved their people>processes>system methodology to enable its clients to develop their process-based management systems. These systems conform to international standards for process-based management systems including ISO 9001 and its derivatives. These management systems are used to provide confidence that objectives and other requirements will be fulfilled while enabling the core process to add value and prevent loss. QMI's lead researcher and developer of this approach is John R. Broomfield. He completed his original research for process-based management in the construction industry with Tim Cornick at the University of Reading. Tim Cornick referred to this research in his book Quality Management for Building Design (ISBN 978-0-7506-1225-8).