Starting from the premise that techniques and methods are needed to improve the identification of researchable constraints and opportunities amongst smallholders, this paper focuses on the scope of 'farm management type methods' - simple tools that could assist farmers and researchers to quantify and analyse the use of resources in farms and households. Such methods could also enable users to consider, prior to research, the likely resource-use implications, at the farm level, of implementing possible solutions before the research itself is carried out. Conventional farm management methods are reviewed and limitations responsible for their lack of use with smallholders in developing countries identified. Ideas for new and adapted tools, which address these limitations, and draw on the strengths of both farm management and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), are presented and recommendations on their further development made. Potential uses of the methods, other than in needs assessment, are noted. Similarly, users other than smallholder farmers, such as small scale processors and traders, are identified.