Standard Operating Procedures: Make repeatable work executable and auditable
A procedure describes what usually happens but omits prerequisites, exceptions, ownership, evidence, and the review needed to keep it current.
The useful response is not another status layer. It is a mechanism that can make repeatable work executable and auditable.
What the skill produces
The Standard Operating Procedures skill turns supplied context into an SOP with purpose, scope, owner, inputs, steps, checks, exceptions, output, and revision history. It should expose missing evidence instead of inventing it. The free skill packages this mechanism for explicit use. It does not fetch remote instructions, and the practitioner remains responsible for the facts and final decision.
Run the mechanism
- Define the trigger, owner, prerequisites, and expected output.
- Write observable steps with evidence and exception paths.
- Test with a competent user and assign a review date.
The accountable owner reviews the output against the source evidence before it is used. Material unknowns remain labeled and receive an owner and date when they affect the decision.
Failure check
An SOP fails when it documents an ideal process nobody follows or remains unchanged after the operation changes.
Adoption test
Have someone outside the authoring team run it. Record questions, deviations, and missing controls, then revise the document.
Keep the skill only if the result improves against that baseline. Revise the playbook when the same operating failure survives more than one review cycle.
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