Layer 7 - Management - Blue

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Management – including executive officers – has the challenging responsibility to interpret and implement mandates and directives of the governing boards of organizations with respect to the mission of their enterprises. In the scientific research context, principal investigators face similar challenges as they develop scientific questions and pursue answers that hopeful are both valid and useful. In this, both managers and investigators have responsibilities that extend from the mundane to the creative. They are responsible for basic systems to manage and protect the resources of the organization – from the people to the financial assets, assuring the productive capacity of the entity. Thus, they are responsible for systems to control supporting processes.

More challenging, they need to establish systematic ways of supporting the business activities of the organization – the things that it does, often in unique and proprietary ways. These roles require some means of defining the needs of the organization in a way that can be computerized. This has always been a heady challenge.