SRM monitors system-wide utilization of resources, such as the CPU and paging subsystem, and seeks to alleviate imbalances, that is, over-utilization or under-utilization. This is accomplished by periodically adjusting the number of address spaces that are allowed in central storage and ready to be dispatched for appropriate domains (multiprogramming set).

When system contention factors indicate that the system is not being fully utilized, SRM will select a domain and increase the number of address spaces allowed access to the processor for that domain, thereby increasing utilization of the system.