I like the way Org Mode lets me logically group functions into headings. If I give the heading a CUSTOM_ID property (which is also handy for exporting to HTML, as it turns into an link anchor), I can use that property to find the subtree. Then I can use org-babel-execute-subtree to execute all source blocks in that subtree, which means I can mix scripting languages if I want to.

Here's the code:

(defun my-org-execute-subtree-by-custom-id (id &optional filename)
  "Prompt for a CUSTOM_ID value and execute the subtree with that ID.
If called with \\[universal-argument], prompt for a file, and then prompt for the ID."
  (interactive (if current-prefix-arg
                   (let ((file (read-file-name "Filename: ")))
                     (list
                      (with-current-buffer (find-file-noselect file)
                        (completing-read
                         "Custom ID: "
                         (org-property-values "CUSTOM_ID")))
                      file))
                 (list
                  (completing-read "Custom ID: " (org-property-values "CUSTOM_ID")))))
  (with-current-buffer (if filename (find-file-noselect filename) (current-buffer))
    (let ((pos (org-find-property "CUSTOM_ID" id)))
      (if pos
          (org-babel-execute-subtree)
        (if filename(error "Could not find %s in %s" id filename)
          (error "Could not find %s" id))))))

For example, in Using Org Mode, Emacs Lisp, and TRAMP to parse meetup calendar entries and generate a crontab, I have a Emacs Lisp source block that generates a crontab on a different computer, and a shell source block that installs it on that computer.

Technical notes: org-babel-execute-subtree narrows to the current subtree, so if I want anything from the rest of the buffer, I need to widen the focus again. Also, it's wrapped in a save-restriction and a save-excursion, so someday I might want to figure out how to handle the cases where I want to change what I'm looking at.

elisp: links in Org Mode let me call functions by clicking on them or following them with C-c C-o (org-open-at-point). This means I can make links that execute subtrees that might even be in a different file. For example, I can define links like these:

• [[elisp:(my-org-execute-subtree-by-custom-id "update" "~/sync/emacs-calendar/README.org")][Update Emacs calendar]]
• [[elisp:(my-org-execute-subtree-by-custom-id "crontab" "~/sync/emacs-calendar/README.org")][Update Emacs meetup crontab]]

That could be a good starting point for a dashboard.

Related: Execute a single named Org Babel source block