Layer 8 - Governance - Purple

The job of the governing board of each organization is to meet the needs of end users to the best of their ability – ensuring that the best interests of the market, the public, and the law are met. Governing boards are under increasing pressure to design and declare their mandates more intelligently, better serving the public interest. They also exist to ensure compliance by means of effective systems and procedures. This is particularly true with respect to financial and environmental issues. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is a prominent example of the degree of importance control systems have become to governors, executives, and managers of organizations, who now can face possible criminal penalties for ignoring systems issues. From an environmental standpoint, institutions in all sectors face pressures from waste and from misuse of natural resources that have negative competitive as well as compliance implications.

After all is said and done, the governors of the organizations are responsible to determining the "High Profile Technology" that will define the capabilities and integrity of their underlying systems. This is very difficult to accomplish without some way of dividing up the issues and delegating responsibilities appropriately, two basic objectives of the layered model.