Goal
Create a practical standard operating procedure that a trained teammate can follow consistently without relying on undocumented knowledge.
Success Criteria
- The SOP has a clear trigger, owner, endpoint, and expected result.
- Steps identify required inputs, systems, decisions, and evidence of completion.
- Common exceptions and escalation paths are covered.
- Unknown process details remain visible instead of being guessed.
Inputs
- Process name, purpose, trigger, and frequency
- Owner and participating roles
- Current steps, systems, templates, and handoffs
- Quality, timing, security, and approval requirements
- Known exceptions and failure cases
- Example of a successful completed process
Constraints
- Describe the current approved process unless a redesign is explicitly requested.
- Never invent credentials, permissions, policies, or system behavior.
- Use role names instead of individual names unless ownership is intentionally personal.
- Keep steps atomic and observable.
Instructions
- Define the start condition, successful end state, owner, and scope.
- Organize prerequisites and inputs before the procedure.
- Write numbered steps with an action, owner, expected result, and evidence.
- Add decision points only where the path genuinely changes.
- Document common exceptions, escalation criteria, and recovery actions.
- Add final quality checks and a revision owner.
Output
- Purpose and scope
- Trigger, owner, prerequisites, and inputs
- Numbered procedure
- Decision and exception table
- Completion checklist
- Escalation and maintenance notes
Quality Check
Walk through one normal case and one failure case. Confirm that no step depends on hidden context and that completion can be verified.
Stop Rules
Ask for the process owner when ownership affects approval or access. Do not change permissions, execute the process, or present guessed policy as approved procedure.