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Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Go beyond satisfying auditors to drive process improvement, consistent IT operations, and effective knowledge transfer.

  • Writing SOPs is the last thing most people want to do, so the work gets pushed down the priority list and the documents become dated.
  • Most organizations know it is good practice to have SOPs as it improves consistency, facilitates process improvement, and contributes to efficient operations.
  • Though the benefits are understood, many organizations don't have SOPs and those that do don't maintain them.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Create visual documents, not dense SOP manuals.
  • Start with high-impact SOPs, and identify the most critical undocumented SOPs and address them first.
  • Integrate SOP creation into project requirements and create SOP approval steps to ensure documentation is reviewed and completed in a timely fashion.

Impact and Result

  • Create visual documents that can be scanned. Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams are quicker to create, take less time to update, and are ultimately more usable than a dense manual.
  • Use simple but effective document management practices.
  • Make SOPs part of your project deliverables rather than an afterthought. That includes checking documentation status as part of your change management process.

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind Research & Tools

1. Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind – Make SOPs work for you with visual documents that are easier to create and more effective for process management and optimization.

Learn best practices for creating, maintaining, publishing, and managing effective SOP documentation.

2. Standard Operating Procedures Workbook and Document Management Checklist – Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs.

Identify required documentation and prioritize them according to urgency and impact.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

8.7/10


Overall Impact

$6,649


Average $ Saved

10


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Ember IT

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

1

Blackbaud

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

20

Government of Bermuda

Guided Implementation

8/10

$12,999

10

Port Of New Orleans

Guided Implementation

9/10

$64,999

20

The worst part was primarily my misunderstanding of Info~Tech's definition of SOP. 30+ years of doing this type of work, and I do not think i was u... Read More


Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Change your focus from satisfying auditors to driving process optimization, consistent IT operations, and effective knowledge transfer.

Project Outline

Two flowcharts are depicted. The first is labelled 'Executive Brief' and the second is labelled 'Tools and Templates Roadmap'. Both outline the following project.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Do your SOPs drive process optimization?

"Most organizations struggle to document and maintain SOPs as required, leading to process inconsistencies and inefficiencies. These breakdowns directly impact the performance of IT operations. Effective SOPs streamline training and knowledge transfer, improve transparency and compliance, enable automation, and ultimately decrease costs as processes improve and expensive breakdowns are avoided. Documenting SOPs is not just good practice; it directly impacts IT efficiency and your bottom line."

Frank Trovato, Senior Manager, Infrastructure Research Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:

  • IT Process Owners
  • IT Infrastructure Managers
  • IT Service Managers
  • System Administrators
  • And more…

This Research Will Help You:

  • Identify, prioritize, and document SOPs for critical business processes.
  • Discover opportunities for overall process optimization by documenting SOPs.
  • Develop documentation best practices that support ongoing maintenance and review.

This Research Will Also Assist:

  • CTOs
  • Business unit leaders

This Research Will Help Them:

  • Understand the need for and value of documenting SOPs in a usable format.
  • Help set expectations around documentation best practices.
  • Extend IT best practices to other parts of the business.

Executive summary

Situation

  • Most organizations know it is good practice to have SOPs as it improves consistency, facilitates process improvement, and contributes to efficient operations.
  • Though the benefits are understood, many organizations don't have SOPs and those that do don't maintain them.

Complication

  • Writing SOPs is the last thing most people want to do, so the work gets pushed down the priority list and the documents become dated.
  • Promoting the use of SOPs can also face staff resistance as the documentation is seen as time consuming to develop and maintain, too convoluted to be useful, and generally out of date.

Resolution

  • Overcome staff resistance while implementing a sustainable SOP documentation approach by doing the following:
    • Create visual documents that can be scanned. Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams are quicker to create, take less time to update, and are ultimately more usable than a dense manual.
    • Use simple, but effective document management practices.
    • Make SOPs part of your project deliverables rather than an afterthought. That includes checking documentation status as part of your change management process.
  • Extend these principles to other areas of IT and business processes. The survey data and examples in this report include application development and business processes as well as IT operations.

Info-Tech Insight

  1. Create visual documents, not dense SOP manuals.
  2. Start with high-impact SOPs. Identify the most critical undocumented SOPs and document them first.
  3. Integrate SOP creation into project requirements and create SOP approval steps to ensure documentation is reviewed and completed in a timely fashion.

Most organizations struggle to create and maintain SOP documents, especially in North America, despite the benefits

North American companies are traditionally more technology focused than process focused, and that is reflected in the approach to documenting SOPs.

  • An ad hoc approach to SOPs almost certainly means documents will be out of date and ineffective. The same is also true when updating SOPs as part of periodic concerted efforts to prepare for an audit, annual review, or certification process, and this makes the task more imposing.
  • Incorporating SOP updates as part of regular change management processes ensures documents are up to date and usable. This can also make reviews and audits much more manageable.

'It isn’t unusual for us to see infrastructure or operations documentation that is wildly out of date. We’re talking months, even years. Often it was produced as one big effort and then not reliably maintained.'

– Gary Patterson, Consultant, Quorum Resources

Organizations are most likely to update documents on an ad hoc basis or via periodic formal reviews. Less than 25% keep SOPs updated as needed.

Graph depicting North America versus Asia and Europe practices of document updates

Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=104

Document SOPs to improve knowledge transfer, optimize processes, and ultimately save money

Benefits of documented SOPs Impact of undocumented/undefined SOPs
Improved training and knowledge transfer: Routine tasks can be delegated to junior staff (freeing senior staff to work on higher priority tasks). Without documented SOPs: Tasks will be difficult to delegate, key staff become a bottleneck, knowledge transfer is inconsistent, and there is a longer onboarding process for new staff.
IT automation, process optimization, and consistent operations: Defining, documenting, and then optimizing processes enables IT automation to be built on sound processes, so consistent positive results can be achieved. Without documented SOPs: IT automation built on poorly defined, unoptimized processes leads to inconsistent results.
Compliance: Compliance audits are more manageable because the documentation is already in place. Without documented SOPs: Documenting SOPs to prepare for an audit becomes a major time-intensive project.
Transparency: Visually documented processes answer the common business question of “why does that take so long?” Without documented SOPs: Other areas of the organization may not understand how IT operates, which can lead to confusion and unrealistic expectations.
Cost savings: Work can be assigned to the lowest level of support cost, IT operations achieve greater efficiency, and expensive breakdowns are avoided. Without documented SOPs: Work may be distributed uneconomically, money may be wasted through inefficient processes, and the organization is vulnerable to costly disruptions.

COBIT, ISO, and ITIL aren’t a complete solution

"Being ITIL and ISO compliant hasn’t solved our documentation problem. We’re still struggling."

– Vendor Relationship Manager, Financial Services Industry

  • Adopting a framework such as ITIL, COBIT, or ISO doesn’t always mean that SOP documents are accurate, effective, or up to date.
  • Although these frameworks emphasize the importance of documenting processes, they tend to focus more on process development and requirements than on actual documentation. In other words, they deal more with what needs to be done than with how to do it.
  • This research will focus more on the documentation process itself – so how to go about creating, updating, optimizing, managing, and distributing SOP documents.

Inadequate SOPs lead to major data loss and over $99,000 in recovery costs

CASE STUDY 1

Company A mid-sized US organization with over 1,000 employees

Source Info-Tech Interview

Situation

  • IT supports storage nodes replicated across two data centers. SOPs for backup procedures did not include an escalation procedure for failed backups or a step to communicate successful backups. Management was not aware of the issue and therefore could not address it before a failure occurred.

Incident

  • Primary storage had a catastrophic failure, and that put pressure on the secondary storage, which then also failed. All active storage failed and the data corrupted. Daily backups were failing due to lack of disk space on the backup device. The organization had to resort to monthly tape backups.

Impact

  • Lost 1 month of data (had to go back to the last tape backup).
  • Recovery also took much longer because recovery procedures were also not documented.
  • Key steps such as notifying impacted customers were overlooked. Customers were left unhappy not only with the outage and data loss but also the lack of communication.
Hard dollar recovery costs
Backup specialist (vendor) to assist with restoring data from tape $12,000
Temps to re-enter 1 month of data $5,000
Weekend OT for 4 people (approximately 24 hours per person) $5,538
Productivity cost for affected employees for 1 day of downtime $76,923
Total $99,462

Intangible costs

High “goodwill” impact for internal staff and customers.

"The data loss pointed out a glaring hole in our processes – the lack of an escalation procedure. If I knew backups weren’t being completed, I would have done something about that immediately."

– Senior Division Manager, Information Technology Division

IT services company optimizes its SOPs using “Lean” approach

CASE STUDY 2

Company Atrion

SourceInfo-Tech Interview

Lean and SOPs

  • Standardized work is important to Lean’s philosophy of continuous improvement. SOPs allow for replication of the current best practices and become the baseline standard for member collaboration toward further improvements.
  • For more on Lean’s approach to SOPs, see “Lean Six Sigma Quality Transformation Toolkit (LSSQTT) Tool #17.”

Atrion’s approach

  • Atrion is focused on documenting high-level processes that improve the client and employee experience or which can be used for training.
  • Cross-functional teams collaborate to document a process and find ways to optimize that SOP.
  • Atrion leverages visual documentation as much as possible: flowcharts, illustrations, video screen captures, etc.

Outcomes

  • Large increase in usable, up-to-date documentation.
  • Process and efficiency improvements realized and made repeatable.
  • Success has been so significant that Atrion is planning to offer SOP optimization training and support as a service for its clients in the future.

Atrion

  • Atrion provides IT services, solutions, and leadership to clients in the 250+ user range.
  • After adopting the Lean framework for its organization, it has deliberately focussed on optimizing its documentation.

When we initiated a formal process efficiency program a little over a year ago and began striving towards a culture of continuous improvement, documenting our SOPs became key. We capture how we do things today and how to make that process more efficient. We call it current state and future state mapping of any process.

– Michelle Pope, COO, Atrion Networking Corp.

Strategies to overcome common documentation challenges

Use Info-Tech’s methodology to streamline the SOP documentation process.

Common documentation challenges Info-Tech’s methodology
Where to start. For organizations with very few (if any) documented SOPs, the challenge is where to start. Apply a client focus to prioritize SOPs. Start with mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery.
Lack of time. Writing SOPs is viewed as an onerous task, and IT staff typically do not like to write documentation or lack the time. Use flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams over traditional dense manuals. Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams take less time to create and maintain, and the output is far more usable than traditional manuals.
Inconsistent document management. Documents are unorganized, e.g. hard to find documents, or you don’t know if you have the correct, latest version. Keep it simple. You don’t need a full-time SOP librarian if you stick to a simple, but consistent approach to documentation management. Simple is easier to follow (therefore, be consistent).
Documentation is not maintained. More urgent tasks displace documentation efforts. There is little real motivation for staff to keep documents current. Ensure accountability at the individual and project level. Incorporate documentation requirements into performance evaluations, project planning, and change control procedures.

Use this blueprint as a building block to complete these other Info-Tech projects

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Define appropriate objectives for DR, build a roadmap to close gaps, and document your incident response plan.

Extend the Service Desk to the Enterprise

Position IT as an innovator.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Create Visual SOP Documents – project overview

1. Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs 2. Establish a sustainable documentation process 3. Identify a content management solution
Best-Practice Toolkit

1.1 Identify and prioritize undocumented/outdated critical processes

1.2 Reduce effort and improve usability with visual documentation

1.3 Optimize and document critical processes

2.1 Establish guidelines for identifying and organizing SOPs

2.2 Write an SOP for creating and maintaining SOPs

2.3 Plan SOP working sessions to put a dent into your documentation backlog

3.1 Understand the options when it comes to content management solutions

3.2 Use Info-Tech’s evaluation tool to determine the right approach for you

Guided Implementations
  • Identify undocumented critical SOPs.
  • Understand the benefits of a visual approach.
  • Work through a tabletop exercise to document two visual SOP documents.
  • Establish documentation information guidelines.
  • Identify opportunities to create a culture that fosters SOP creation.
  • Address outstanding undocumented SOPs by working through process issues together.
  • Review your current approach to content management and discuss possible alternatives.
  • Evaluate options for a content management strategy, in the context of your own environment.
Onsite Workshop Module 1:

Identify undocumented critical processes and review the SOP mapping process.

Module 2:

Review and improve your documentation process and address your documentation backlog.

Module 3:

Evaluate strategies for publishing and managing SOP documentation.

Phase 1 Outcome:
    Review and implement the process for creating usable SOPs.
Phase 2 Outcome:
    Optimize your SOP maintenance processes.
Phase 3 Outcome:
    Choose a content management solution that meets your needs.

Workshop overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Workshop Prep Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4
Activities Scope the SOP pilot and secure resources
  • Identify the scope of the pilot project.
  • Develop a list of processes to document.
  • Ensure required resources are available.
Prioritize SOPs and review methodology

1.1 Prioritize undocumented SOPs.

1.2 Review the visual approach to SOP planning.

1.3 Conduct a tabletop planning exercise.

Review SOPs and identify process gaps

2.1 Continue the tabletop planning exercise with other critical processes.

2.2 Conduct a gap analysis to identify solutions to issues discovered during SOP mapping.

Identify projects to meet process gaps

3.1 Develop a prioritized project roadmap to address gaps.

3.2 Define a process for documenting and maintaining SOPs.

3.3 Identify and assign actions to improve SOP management and maintenance.

Set next steps and put a dent in your backlog

4.1 Run an SOP working session with experts and process owners to put a dent in the documentation backlog.

4.2 Identify an appropriate content management solution.

Deliverables
  1. Defined scope for the workshop.
  2. A longlist of key processes.
  1. Undocumented SOPs prioritized according to business criticality and current state.
  2. One or more documented SOPs.
  1. One or more documented SOPs.
  2. Gap analysis.
  1. SOP Project Roadmap.
  2. Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool.
  1. Multiple documented SOPs.
  2. Action steps to improve SOP management and maintenance.

Measured value for Guided Implementations (GIs)

Engaging in GIs doesn’t just offer valuable project advice, it also results in significant cost savings.

GI Measured Value
Phase 1: Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs
  • Time, value, and resources saved using Info-Tech’s methodology to prioritize and document SOPs in the ideal visual format.
  • For example, 4 FTEs*4 days*$80,000/year = $5,120
Phase 2: Establish a sustainable documentation process
  • Time, value, and resources saved using our tools and methodology to implement a process to ensure SOPs are maintained, accessible, and up to date.
  • For example: 4 FTEs*5 days*$80,000/year = $6,400
Phase 3: Identify a content management solution
  • Time, value, and resources saved using our best-practice guidance and tools to select an approach and solution to manage your organization’s SOPs.
  • For example: 2 FTEs*5 days*$80,000/year = $3,200
Total Savings $14,720

Note: Documenting SOPs provides additional benefits that are more difficult to quantify: reducing the time spent by staff to find or execute processes, improving transparency and accountability, presenting opportunities for automation, etc.

Phase 1

Prioritize, Optimize, and Document Critical SOPs

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

Phase 1 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 1: Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2 weeks

Step 1.1: Prioritize SOPs

Start with an analyst kick off call:

  • Apply a client focus to critical IT services.
  • Identify undocumented, critical SOPs.

Then complete these activities…

  • Rank and prioritize your SOP documentation needs.

With this template:

Standard Operating Procedures Workbook

Step 1.2: Develop visual documentation

Review findings with analyst:

  • Understand the benefits of a visual approach.
  • Review possibilities for visual documentation.

Then complete these activities…

  • Identify formats that can improve your SOP documentation.

With these templates:

  • Example DRP Process Flows
  • Example App Dev Process And more…

Step 1.3: Optimize and document critical processes

Finalize phase deliverable:

  • Two visual SOP documents, mapped using a tabletop exercise.

Then complete these activities…

  • Create the visual SOP.
  • Review and optimize the process.

With this tool:

SOP Project Roadmap Tool

Phase 1 Results & Insights:

Identify opportunities to deploy visual documentation, and follow Info-Tech’s process to capture steps, gaps, and opportunities to improve IT processes.

Focus first on client-facing and high-impact SOPs

IT’s number one obligation to internal and external customers is to keep critical services running – that points to mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery.

Topic Description
Mission-critical operations
  • Maintenance processes for mission-critical systems (e.g. upgrade procedures, batch processing, etc.).
  • Client-facing services with either formal or informal SLAs.
  • Change management – especially for mission-critical systems, change management is more about minimizing risk of downtime than expediting change.
Service management
  • Service desk procedures (e.g. ticket assignment and issue response).
  • Escalation procedures for critical outages.
  • System monitoring.
Disaster recovery procedures
  • Management-level incident response plans, notification procedures, and high-level failover procedures (e.g. which systems must come up first, second, third).
  • Recovery or failover procedures for individual systems.
  • Backup and restore procedures – to ensure backups are available if needed.

Understand what makes an application or service mission critical

When email or a shared drive goes down, it may impact productivity, but may not be a significant impact to the business. Ask these questions when assessing whether an application or service is mission critical.

Criteria Description
Is there a hard-dollar impact from downtime?
  • For example, when an online catalog system goes down, it impacts sales and therefore revenue. Without determining the actual financial impact, you can make an immediate assessment that this is a Gold system.
  • By contrast, loss of email may impact productivity but may not affect revenue streams, depending on your business. A classification of Silver is most likely appropriate.
Impact on goodwill/customer trust?
  • If downtime means delays in service delivery or otherwise impacts goodwill, there is an intangible impact on revenue that may make the associated systems Gold status.
Is regulatory compliance a factor?
  • If a system requires redundancy and/or high availability due to legal or regulatory compliance requirements, it may need to be classified as a Gold system.
Is there a health or safety risk?
  • For example, police and medical organizations have systems that are mission critical due to their impact on health and safety rather than revenue or cost, and therefore are classified as Gold systems. Are there similar considerations in your organization?

"Email and other Windows-based applications are important for our day-to-day operations, but they aren’t critical. We can still manufacture and ship clothing without them. However, our manufacturing systems, those are absolutely critical"

– Bob James, Technical Architect, Carhartt, Inc.

Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind preview picture

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

8.7/10
Overall Impact

$6,649
Average $ Saved

10
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

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Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

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Guided Implementation 1: Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs
  • Call 1: Identify undocumented critical SOPs.
  • Call 2: Understand the benefits of a visual approach.
  • Call 3: Work through a tabletop exercise to document two visual SOP documents.

Guided Implementation 2: Establish a sustainable documentation process
  • Call 1: Establish documentation information guidelines.
  • Call 2: Identify opportunities to create a culture that fosters SOP creation.
  • Call 3: Address outstanding undocumented SOPs by working through process issues together.

Guided Implementation 3: Identify a content management solution
  • Call 1: Review the current approach to content management, and discuss possible alternatives.
  • Call 2: Evaluate options for a content management strategy, in the context of the environment.

Authors

Frank Trovato

Andrew Sharp

David Xu

Contributors

  • Gary R. Patterson, Vice President – Technology, Quorum Resources, Inc.
  • Thomas P. Uyehara, IT Director, IndependenceFirst
  • Hoc Le, Technical Lead for Transportation Applications Group, Georgia-Pacific
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