4. Human / People in the system
People are often part of an overall system. Think of a typical organisation such as a school. There are teachers, support staff, students, technicians and so on. Each have a role to play within the system called 'school'.
Typical roles of people within a system include
- Providing inputs into the system. They will take in information from outside the system and convert it into a format that is suitable for processing within the system. e.g. customer orders or requests
- Repair and maintenance. The system has a technology aspect to it. And machines will always break down eventually. Therefore some people within the system are responsible for its upkeep. e.g. network technicians in a school.
- Organising other people. An organisation (system) often have a number of people within it. Their activities are managed by a group of other people called 'management'. It is the task of management to make sure that the system remains capable of fulfilling its role. e.g. senior management team within a school
- Managing finance. Almost all organisations need to deal with money in some form. Usually there is a budget for various parts of the organisation and the finance director (or bursar) is responsible for this. Technological systems will be used to support this role in the form of spreadsheets, accounting systems and so on.
- Research and Development. Systems or organisations do not stand still. And some some people are responsible for development within the system. For example, software programmers that improve or develop new applications for use within the system
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