The Quick Guide to

Writing Standard Operating

Procedures (SOPs)
Table of Contents

The Quick Guide to Writing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) 1-10

What is a Standard Operating Procedure? 1
Common Use Cases 2
Why Write a Standard Operating Procedure? 2
The Most Important Things To Keep In Mind When Writing SOPs 3
Where Do I Start And What Are The Main Steps? 3
What Do I Do With SOPs Once They Are Approved? 5
5 Things To Remember When Writing SOPs 7
The Business Case For Writing Good SOPs 7
5 Expected Results From Implementing A Well-Defined SOP System/Knowledge Transfer System 8
The CCCs of SOPs 8
Automatically Generate SOP Job Aids And Training Materials in Minutes 9
Are You Ready To Get Started? 11
Appendix 12-15
12
SOP Document Outline Structure 12
Purpose 12
Scope 13
General Requirements (Overall Task Description) 13
Responsibilities 13
13
Materials And Equipment 14
Policy/Procedure(s) 14
Describe Each Task In Detail 14
Avoid Long Lists Of Steps! 14
Regulatory Review 15
Contingencies (Corrective Actions) 15
References 15
Attachments 15
Document History Table 15
The Quick Guide to Writing
Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

• Does your growing company require better processes for implementing standards and controls?
• Are you spending too much time and money to bring your new employees up to speed?
• When your expert operators retire, will their replacements be able to continue the level of quality
and production you expect?

If you are like most operations managers, you need tools to help you rapidly create custom training
and job aids so you can implement quality standards across your entire workforce and train new hires
quickly.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) maximize the speed with which new employees learn their
duties and make sure they do their job in an effective and consistent way.

What Is A Standing Operating Procedure?

A standard operating procedure, or SOP, provides a set of step-by-step instructions compiled by

experts at an organization to help workers implement complex routine operations.

SOPs can be written for processes that an individual or group perform in many situations:

• Manufacturing: Unloading raw materials, manufacturing products, shutting down an

operation, repairing a faulty electrical circuit, etc.
• Healthcare: Working with patients in a hospital, processing pharmaceuticals, reporting
accurate patient medical history data, etc.
• Consumer Goods: Producing consumer goods and services, tracking product development,
supporting packaging and logistics, etc.
• Services
other workplace activities, etc.

1
Common Use Cases

• Compliance
• Pharmaceutical manufacturers capture SOPs and generate checklists and job aids for
clean rooms
• Hospitals capture Lab Protocols with supporting checklists and quick reference cards

• Manufacturers create work instructions for equipment set-up, operations, shut-down,

and downtime maintenance protocols
• Logistic companies train remote control crane operators at ports

• Government Agencies standardize training and support across multiple international

locations
• Aluminum plants standardize SOPs and Work Instructions, fully integrated with
SharePoint, at some of the largest international locations

Why Write A Standard Operating Procedure?

miscommunication, and minimizes risk of failure to comply with industry regulations.

There are many reasons to use SOPs in your organization, including:

• Improve safety and operational effectiveness;
• Streamline and preserve company processes and knowledge;
• Support regulatory compliance and evaluation;
• Enforce quality assurance;
•

2
The Most Important Things To Keep In Mind When Writing SOPs

The most important things to do when creating SOPs are:

• Make sure you keep your audience in mind, as well as your regulatory auditors;
•
• Specify the purpose, scope and general requirements to be met;
•
•

Where Do I Start And What Are The Main Steps?

• Subject matter experts (SMEs) can be found throughout your organization, across multiple
departments. Some processes are touched by multiple people along the way and it is
important to get information from all of these employees when creating your SOP. The
operations managers are often the best resource for identifying the experts in each area.

• Review all existing legacy SOPs for your target area. Many of these will be brief, requiring
only minor revisions, but be prepared to replace some legacy SOPs, add additional procedural

• Make sure the SOPs are consistent with your company’s policies and are supported by your
work instructions.

*
.

•
charts, related documents, and expected outputs, will improve the quality of your SOP.

* See Appendix for full list of document requirements.

3
• Decide how the SOPs will be organized, stored, reviewed, and approved.
• It is important to retain revision history and document control throughout the process of

• This will help with regulatory audits and reduce the risk of non-compliance.

time and cost.

• Successful SOP systems need to be consistent, concurrent, and compliant.

SOP Example
A well-structured SOP has a format
that is easily followed and provides
consistency across the organization.

• Identify the technical specialist in each department to review your SOP content.
• Identify appropriate operations managers, quality assurance specialists, and maintenance

4
What Do I Do With SOPs Once They Are Approved?

• Training your employees on new and revised SOPs is critical to the success of your program.
• Training materials need to made available in the most appropriate format for easy access by
employees, including SOP job aids, checklists, PowerPoint slides and online training.
• Develop methods to track and record employee SOP comprehension prior to having them
implement the SOP.

Quick Reference Card Example

Quick Reference Cards can be used
to train employees to follow standard
operating procedures, step-by-step.

5
 • SOPs need to be made available in multiple formats, both digital and print.
• Appropriate SOPs for each job/role need to be conveniently organized in a searchable
indexed format.

10. Revise and reiterate.

• Your system must allow for regular review with appropriate revisions for all critical SOPs.
• SOPs should not be set in stone. They should be updated and improved continuously as new

over time.

*PCES TIP

6
5 Things To Remember When Writing SOPs

• Be Concise: SOPs can become much too long and detailed to be helpful.
• Chunk Them: Do not try to put everything into a single SOP. Create multiple SOPs as needed.
• Use Common Language: Make sure your SOP will be easily understood by your target audience.
• Emphasize the What: The SOP states what is to be done—the Work Instruction states how it is to
be done.
• Revise and Revise: Make sure your SOP review and approval system allows for easy updates and
revisions over time.

*PCES TIP

The Business Case For Writing Good SOPs

Communicating the value of an SOP system to your colleagues and boss is an important step in SOP

include:

• Avoid knowledge loss when employee turnover occurs

• Save time and money

*PCES TIP

development.

7
Knowledge Transfer System

SOP implementation will ensure end-users are able to:

1. Do the right thing at the right time.

Improved Effectiveness: the degree to which the right procedure is successfully processed in the

being done well?

product that should have been completed correctly.

Improved Focus: the degree to which each employee is focused on an SOP they can follow
without distraction.

Work Elimination: by creating and revising SOPs based on operational experience, many
steps can be eliminated, combined, or restructured.

8
The CCCs of SOPs

•
• Any regulated company in sectors like pharmaceuticals, energy, medical, and food
processing needs to stay in compliance with industry standards in order to have operations
assure required quality levels.

•
• Every company desires consistent policies and procedures to improve operational
performance across departments. This is especially critical for mergers and acquisitions looking
for a single corporate standard.

•
• Keeping standards concurrent is critical to keeping the organization up to speed on the latest
(sometimes revised) policies and procedures. Having outdated SOPs can lead to citations and

Automatically Generate SOP Job Aids And Training Materials in Minutes

Our Express Train Software allows you to enter your SOPs into a single-source and automatically
create SOPs and job aids and training materials such as checklists, work instructions, and reference
cards.

ExpressTrain allows you to enter your content in Microsoft Word templates that:
•
maintenance protocols.
•
frequently used tasks.
• Include images, graphics, tables, even videos to help the operator better understand how best
to proceed.
• And, enter knowledge-check questions to verify understanding.

9
 Job aids based on SOP content
can be made available to users in a
format that is easy to follow.

Once you enter the content you need, you can automatically generate all your SOP job aids and
training materials in minutes, including:
• Work Instructions and User Manuals;
• Job Aids including Checklists and Quick Reference Cards;
•
• PowerPoint presentations with Leader and Participant Guides;
• Web-based Training and online Quizzes.

10
Are You Ready To Get Started?

Now that you know what an SOP is and why it’s so important, there are three things to keep top-of-
mind as you get started.

1. Everyone in the organization must see and understand the big picture. If you want people to work
together as a productive team they must all have the ultimate goal in mind or they may work at cross
purposes.

2. People will tolerate the directives of leadership, but they will ultimately act on their own. If the end
users and operators do not know what to do, they will make up their own minds about what is best.

3. By appealing to the highest level of thinking in your people, you will get the highest level of action,
commitment and alignment. This is often overlooked.

If you have questions, want a demo, or would like to talk to an expert to see if ExpressTrain is right for
you, email Peter Rizza at prizza@princetoncenter.com or call +1-609-737-8098.

11
Appendix

The page header should include the name of the Organization, address and if possible the
department or group. The header will then include the SOP Number, Title, Version Number, Page
Number, and Effective Date. Often, the author’s name of the SOP is in the header.

At the end of the SOP, indicate a section for documenting SOP reviews with space for reviewer’s
signature and date signed. If the SOP is to be archived or retired, add a line to document this

• Document Title
• Document Class (Policy, Procedure, Process, Directive, etc.)
• Document Number
• Revision Number Version
• Copyright
• Division
• Location
• Department
• Area
• Effective Date
• Author

SOP Document Outline Structure

Purpose

being written. For example, “The purpose of this Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to specify
the processes used to manage SOPs”. The Purpose statement needs to be detailed enough so that
the intended user can recognize what the document covers.
• Explain the objective the SOP is intended to achieve.
• To provide individuals who perform operations with all the safety, health, environmental and

12
 operational information required to perform a job properly.
• To ensure that operations are done consistently in order to maintain quality control of
processes and products.

Scope

It should help the reader to identify what is (and what is not) covered in the procedure.
• Explain the objective the SOP is intended to achieve.
•
within an operation will be covered? Which are not covered?
• Who is the SOP written for?

General Requirements (Overall Task Description)

• Develop an overall task description.
• Include the number of people required for the task, their skill levels, the equipment and
supplies required, any personal protective or safety equipment required, and a description of

• If you need to give some background information, or list any warnings or precautions
before performing a procedure, this section is the place to list them. Warnings and cautions
should be set out from the regular text by using bold, italics, underlining, or color (or
combination).

Responsibilities
State the personnel, departments, groups, contractors, and/or subcontractors responsible for both
performing and complying with the SOP. State the person or group responsible for assuring the
appropriate personnel are trained on the SOP.

13
Materials and Equipment
List all of the materials and equipment needed to complete the procedure. If the procedure is

is listed in the References section, and that users have been trained to operate the equipment prior to
performing the procedure.

Policy/Procedure(s)
• Explain the procedure in simple steps. Carefully think about how a procedure is performed
from the very beginning.
•
what to do, not how to do it.
• Then state who does each step and where it is recorded to be certain that whoever is
performing the procedure can prove that they have done it.

Describe Each Task In Detail

In this section, include the following:

• Timing sequences and times allowed

• Materials or tools used and how they are used
• Safety or health considerations
• References to other associated SOPs

Avoid Long Lists Of Steps!

• A long list looks formidable, which makes the task daunting and tedious for many people
who then don’t want to perform the steps.
•
lead to mistakes.
• A long list scares people and makes them nervous or anxious to ”get it over with.”
• A long list can hide steps that should be performed with caution.
•

The solution to SOPs that involve a long list of steps is to break up the steps into logical sections of
about 10 steps per section, such as “Getting ready for the process,” “Initial steps,” “Final steps.”

14
Regulatory Review
State how often the SOP is reviewed, and/or under what circumstances it is to be revised and indicate
who is responsible for reviewing the SOP.

Contingencies (Correcrtive Actions)

• State what happens if the SOP cannot be followed and requires contingencies. Identify who

• State what happens when an SOP is incorrectly followed. Include short-term and long-term
corrective action measures and how to document the actions.

References
List related SOPs, any supporting documentation necessary to understand and correctly follow the
procedure, and any applicable regulations and regulatory guidelines.

Attachments
List applicable forms that are required to be completed in the SOP. Attach any documents used in

Document History Table

•
affected and when the changes become effective.
• Follow a uniform format for tracking SOP changes; indicate who made the revision, date
of revision and the new version number.
• Properly archive an outgoing version and all existing copies to avoid unnecessary confusion.

15