Most SOPs are written once, by the person who does the job, for the person who will never do it. They describe the happy path in prose and omit the two things that actually matter: when the process starts, and what to do when it fails.
This template fixes that by forcing four sections before any steps.
How to use it
Fill it in for one process. One page. If it does not fit on one page, you have either picked two processes or you are documenting exceptions that belong in a separate note.
The test: hand it to somebody who has never done the job and leave the room. If they can complete it without asking a question, it works. If they ask, the answer they needed belongs in the document.
The template
Process name:
Owner: the one person accountable, not the team.
Trigger: the specific event that means this process starts. Not "weekly" if it is really "when an order arrives". A vague trigger is the reason processes run late and nobody notices.
Frequency and deadline: how often, and by when. If there is a regulatory or contractual deadline, state it here.
Steps
Number them. One action per step. Each step says what to do and where. If a step needs a credential or a login, name the system, never the password.
1. 2. 3.
What can go wrong
The three most common failures, and what to do for each. This section is what makes the document usable on a bad day.
| Failure | What it looks like | What to do | |---|---|---| | | | | | | | | | | | |
Who to tell
If the process fails and cannot be completed, who is told, how, and within what time. An escalation path that ends in "ask the manager" is not a path.
Escalate to:
Within:
How we know it ran
The record that proves it happened. A checklist tick, a row in a sheet, a filed confirmation. A process with no evidence of completion is a process that will quietly stop.
Evidence:
Where it is kept:
Keeping it alive
Review it when the process changes, and when somebody new has to follow it for the first time. Put a review date at the top. An SOP with no review date is a document nobody has read since the day it was written.
Last reviewed: Next review: