Writing operating procedures: keeping things simple, useful and effective

You're in charge of drawing up or revising work documents, specifying the details of operations to be carried out. These documents are called operating procedures or instructions. You don't know how to proceed, what level of detail to specify or what format to adopt?

Unlike procedures, which are general in nature, operating methods are documents that provide a precise description of the operations to be carried out.

The operating procedure must therefore both meet the company's requirements and create the conditions for effective application. To achieve this, two conditions must be jointly met:

• substance: the content of the information must be appropriate, relevant and sufficient;

• form: this must ensure that the information is properly understood, and consequently that the expected operations are carried out. Form also contributes to document management in terms of identification, preparation, distribution, revision, etc.