SOP Writing – How Much Detail Is Required?

by admin on October 22, 2011

How much information do you need to include in your SOP? One of the dilemmas for procedure writing is working out what level of detail is required when creating SOPs (standard operating procedures). Too little and the user can’t perform their tasks correctly. Too much and the documents seem so dense that nobody wants to [...]

How to Use Numbers in Procedures Correctly

by admin on October 20, 2011

When writing procedures, should you write one or 1? It’s a small detail but how you use numbers in SOPs influences how others interpret your instructions and perform tasks correctly. In some situations, you should use one whereas in others 1 is the correct word to use. So, which one should you use? And where? [...]

SOP Naming Conventions

by admin on October 18, 2011

What are naming conventions and why are they so important in procedure writing? If you’re responsible for writing SOPs, then you need to develop naming conventions that help you control how procedures are written, reviewed, published, and archived. Don’t worry – it’s not as difficult as it sounds. Naming Conventions 101 The first question is: [...]

Warren Buffett’s 10 Steps To Better Report Writing

by admin on October 12, 2010

Buffett writes like he speaks. Direct, immediate and without pretension. “For more than forty years, I’ve studied the documents that public companies file. Too often, I’ve been unable to decipher just what is being said or, worse yet, had to conclude that nothing was being said. If corporate lawyers and their clients follow the advice [...]

How to Prioritize SOPs When Controlling Documents

by admin on October 12, 2010

What’s the simplest way to control numerous SOPs documents, especially if you’re managing a team across different business units?

Step 10 – How to Implement Procedures

September 22, 2010

The best way to implement policies and procedures is to ensure they are well-written, useful, and simplify things for the reader. Use this checklist to ensure that your SOPs get implemented correctly.

Read the full article →

Stage 9 – Publishing the Standard Operating Procedures

September 20, 2010

Once the SOPs and Procedures are signed off, we need to publish them. This process is relatively simple… if the correct guidelines are for naming conventions, track changes, documents are converted to PDF correctly, uploaded to the Document Management System, and outdated documents are moved to the Archive folders.

Read the full article →

Stage 8 – Signing-off the Procedure

September 18, 2010

We’ve now completed seven stages in the Procedure writing process. From gathering the requirements, interviewing the Subject Matter Experts, drafting the procedures and getting them reviewed. This takes us up the stage where the documents must be signed off by the Project Stakeholders. While this seems straightforward, there are a few hazards that need to be avoided.

Read the full article →

Stage 7. How to Test Standard Operating Procedures

September 16, 2010

In Part 7 in our series on writing Standard Operating Procedures we look at how to test the Procedures. The first question is who tests the procedure? One of the risks of testing your own procedure is that you’ve become snowblind to how the process actually works and fail to see steps that need to be captured. Also, you may take things for granted which the reader needs to be aware of, such as security precautions or items that need to be in place for the procedure to work.

Read the full article →

Stage 6 – How to Write Standard Operating Procedures

September 14, 2010

This is Part 6 in our series on writing Standard Operating Procedures. If you’ve missed the first five, sign up for the newsletter and the while set of tutorials will be sent to you automatically.

Read the full article →

Stage 5 – Analyzing Alternatives and Contingencies to the As Is Business Process

September 12, 2010

Yesterday we looked at the Information Gathering Phase and described different ways you can get that information from Subject Matter Experts and those in the frontline who use the procedures. In general, Business Analysts gather data through workshops and interviews. Emails work too but I prefer to see the white of their eyes. You can also collect data from reading historical documents which may give more background to the project. These may include Specifications, Requirements and Flowcharts. Gather all these and hold them in a centralized location.

Read the full article →

Stage 4 – Sherlock Holmes & The Tale of the Information Gathering Phase

September 10, 2010

This is the part I like the most about writing procedures. It involves walking around and getting to know those who work with the actual procedure and know how it works ‘warts and all’.

Read the full article →

Stage 3 – Establishing SOP Writing Procedures

September 8, 2010

The third stage of the procedure writing process involves setting up a framework whereby all the different writing activities are formalized.

This means that before the team starts writing the procedures, you can explain to them how the writing process to works and what is expected of each person.

Read the full article →

Stage 2 – Organizing the Procedure Writing Team

September 6, 2010

Yesterday we showed how to get support from the Management team for the Procedure Writing project. We looked at how you need to sell the importance of the quality procedures to the Executive team and how they in turn can pass this message down the line.

Now that we have that in place we can look at the Procedure Writing team. This involves gathering the best writers (or hiring freelance contractors) and then showing them how to write the procedures based on your style guides and SOP templates.

Read the full article →

Stage 1 – Get Management Buy-In Before Writing Your Procedures

September 4, 2010

Yesterday we looked at what needs to be in place before you start writing your procedures. This involves getting the funding, creating a project plan, needs assessment and/or scope of work depending on how complexity of the assignment. Once you have the budget, the next stage is to get support from Management and to find someone at an executive level who will Champion the project.

Read the full article →

Stage 0 – Before You Start Writing Standard Operating Procedures

September 2, 2010

Yesterday we looked at the lifecycle of writing Standard Operating Procedures. We outlined ten different stages in the writing process. What we’ll discuss today is what needs to be done before you start the actual writing. This includes the prep work necessary before the writing team is assembled and also other issues such as getting [...]

Read the full article →

10 Step Plan For Writing Standard Operating Procedures

September 1, 2010

The aim is to introduce the key concepts involved in: Designing Writing Formatting Testing and Maintainingg Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) These tutorials will look at how you can put together a team of writers who can write procedures to an acceptable level so that your company is better organised, both internally and customer-facing. … Some of the other topics will include: Role and Function of SOPs How to conduct a Needs Assessment How to implement SOPs How to Evaluate SOPs How to create SOP templates How to format SOPs, Process, and Flowcharts How to define a SOP At the end of the course, we’ll share some free sample SOPs and other resources that will help you write your procedures.

Read the full article →

6 Examples of Standard Operating Procedures

August 31, 2010

What I’ve done this week is share 7 examples of different standard operating procedures examples (also called SOPs) so you can see how different organizations write, formant, and design their own procedures. Over the coming weeks, we will anaylze these documents and prepare a series of templates that will help you write SOPs for different industries and different sectors.

Read the full article →

Business Process Design Tutorial # 1: Why, What & How?

August 12, 2010

At the end of the workshop, our client confessed, ‘I didn’t know our business worked like that’.

We’d come onsite and over three months mapped out the processes in his Finance, Sales and Operations Depts. For me, one of the most rewarding aspects of Business Analysis is discovering how a business works and then mapping it out in Visio.

Read the full article →

How to Stop Your SOP Procedure Templates From Crashing – Part 1

July 11, 2010

Is there anything worse than writing Standard Operating Procedures all afternoon and then… Word crashes! If your Microsoft Word files suddenly become huge and start crashing, here’s one way to fix it. I’ve creating some very large SOPs in Microsoft Word and learnt a few ways to control these documents.

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries