Casefile 8

The Undertaker

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A procedure is a piece of time-machine technology whose purpose is to transform an anticipated, often recurrent, situation into a desirable outcome in a predictable way using rule-book delegation. The automated spaceship design in the previous story (Invasion) provides an excellent example, where its deployment is literally life-saving. Procedures are a manager’s stock-in-trade. As you’d expect, a good procedure requires its operator to qualify the current situation to make sure it matches the profile of its intended use.

As is the way with technology, a procedure eliminates the need to think about what you’re doing—in ...

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