25 Examples of Standard Operating Procedures

John Spacey, June 17, 2023

Standard operating procedures, or SOPs, are instructions for repeatable tasks and activities. These are used to improve efficiency, productivity, quality, speed and/or safety by applying best known practices to tasks. The design of standard operating procedures may be based on evidence, industry practices and organizational knowledge. They can also be tested and continually improved. The following are common elements of a standard operating procedure.

Title and identifying information such as codes	Version control information
Purpose	Scope
Definitions	Safety precautions
Warnings and cautions	Roles and responsibilities
List of inputs	List of preconditions
List of required tools	Process flow
Step-by-step instructions	Checklists
Fillable forms	Troubleshooting steps
Exception handling steps	Escalation procedures
Testing and validation steps	Quality control steps
Review and approval steps	Compliance steps
Communication steps	References to external documentation
Appendices

Repeating the same procedures with precision may be viewed as toilsome work that is unfulfilling if these procedures are applied many times in a day.

Depending on the context, standard operating procedures need not be rules but rather can serve as a reference. This is particularly important in areas such as customer service where you want employees to use their capacity for empathy, influencing and flexibility.

The term standard operating procedure is sometimes used in jest to refer to inefficient, inflexible or aloof administrative practices.

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