I know you must be swearing at me for trying to find a relationship in two diversely opposing ideas. SOPs are Standard Operating Procedures and they have absolutely nothing to do with projects. SOPs relate to operations as they contain detailed instructions on how to perform these operations, or for that matter processes, as procedures are made up of processes. That is definitely a good practice to have your procedures documented and then all operations are made subordinate to these documented instructions. That will help you achieve consistent results almost every time you repeat those processes. ISO certifications are all about consistency and documentation of processes and procedures. But that does not mean that you would be optimally performing these processes, you will just be consistent in your performance, which may even be bad. Next step after having these SOPs implemented is to continuously improve them, thus increasing efficiency and effectiveness of the process in question to even better levels. This is a continuous, never-ending journey to improvement of these processes. As operations are repetitive in nature, the cycle of continuous improvement never ends, it is infinite and will never ever come to an end.
Projects are temporary endeavors and have a definite start and an end. There is a lot of uncertainty built into projects as compared to operations which are pretty much cast in stone. You are never sure what is actually going to occur in projects but you plan thoroughly to work against any possibility of occurrence and try to cater for all possible risks. It is understandable, projects are on a very shaky ground, but to bridge the gap of uncertainty you use the proactive planning and you spend inordinate amount of time coming up with all possible solutions to cater far all contingencies. This very detailed document on which project management is so well grounded and based, is the Project Management Plan. Although, we understand, no matter how hard we plan, something still can go wrong, and plan will have to be updated accordingly, but still we honor and respect this document and protect it with our life. That is because, we want to have a formal procedure to maintain configuration of all versions of this document and only follow the latest updates of this project management plan. We do understand this document will change but we formalize a change control mechanism to be sure all changes are authenticated and recorded in the resulting updates, which are actually to be followed.
That brings me to the point where I would show how I try to find a relationship between SOPs and projects. We agree projects do not have any SOPs as projects are not operations. But if we look closely we will find that we regard Project Management Plan as importantly as SOPs are treated for operations. So, I can safely say Project Management Plan is to a Project what SOP is to an Operation. To conclude I must say, I was not actually trying to relate SOPs to projects but was trying to create a simili of a SOP to a Project Management Plan.
Hope you got my point.
THANKS Saving Changes...
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Drew CraigSr. Agile & Product Coach| VanguardPhiladelphia, Pa, United States
Yes. They have similarities as they are [should be] both dynamic; ebb & flow with the tides of change. Saving Changes...
Jess De OcampoLean Six Sigma Professional/Project Manager/Consultant/| .Manila, Ncr, Philippines
As always, thank you for sharing your insights. Cheers! Saving Changes...
Ramon RodriguezSanto Domingo, Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic
Thank you Suhail,
It's interesting to see the similarities being pointed out, but I've a concern regarding the improvement of the project plan; if every project is to provide a unique service, product, etc... how is the project management plan to be continuously improved once the project is finished?
I do understand that the project management plan needs to be dynamic in every stage, phase and/or even each process that's being performed but only within the actual project (or maybe program), so there is also a difference that needs to be pointed out in reference to the SOPs'.
With this we must remember that operations are repetitive an monotonous and that projects are unique.
Of course these are just my personal comments.
Regards. Saving Changes...
Tim PodestaDirector of PM/PMO| Former BP- now IndependentPenn, Bucks, United Kingdom
A good topic to discuss. Projects need to produce safe and effective SOP's for the operation of plant, particularly in high hazard industries where I have my experience. So in a project there needs to be operations expertise that inputs to the design, has a deep involvement in the strat up plans and creates the safe and effective operating procedures for the final product. Saving Changes...
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
Agree. This could be used as an example of the importance of initiating/having a project plan in place (as important as following SOP in the operations department). Saving Changes...
Hari PratapFounder| Altistech Innovations India Private LimitedHyderabad, Not In Regions Listed, India
Right insights, where as the considerations might change from team to team and project to project. Saving Changes...
Edward DanielsProject Manager| IndependentGlen Burnie, Md, United States
This is an interesting line of thought, i think. However, in my my humble opinion, while analogy is a great way to explain things, we should refrain from doing so to avoid confusion among our audiences.
SOPs (by nature, design, function) are literarily set in stone to maintain ongoing operations and should not / not change as often as a Project plan. SOPs are supposed to be relevant to ensure ongoing operations are successful, and if for any reason, technology, regulation or business demand changes, then a corresponding change is made to an SOP to make it relevant. On the other hand, no two projects regardless of their similarity are the same, by PMI definition; are a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.
With that in mind, what is the reason behind this analogy?
I have taught audiences and i find that simple explanations of concepts is far more relevant than trying to use analogy. It sometimes creates further confusion especially if there are people who are really new to the concept that you are teaching.
Many people still find it difficult to truly know the difference between "Quality Control" and "Quality Assurance", which are both concepts in Project Quality management. I would disagree that we need this comparison to explain SOPs or project Management plans. People who are involved with PM should be aware of what a project plan is to their project success and folks in operations should know how SOPs helps to direct their actions. Saving Changes...
John TiesoAuthor, Lecturer in Business Management| The Catholic University of America, Busch School of Business & EconomicsArlington, Va, United States
Might I suggest you look at this from another perspective, and ask yourself a question: "How did you decide what the 'best practice' procedure might be?"
Changes are, even if informally, you performed the majority of the activity steps of a project. You might not have a formal charter, and your "PM" might be the manager who wants to encapsulate logical steps into an SOP which provides efficiency, buy you still have the basic development structure -- Initiate, Plan, Execute, Monitor and Control, and Close, with the closing producing the SOP, conducting the training, and providing for continued use. Saving Changes...
Michael LazorchakIndependent Consultant| M.Lazorchak IT PerformanceMi, United States
For many of my projects, SOP's are a critical part of the process. The development of SOP's are a key deliverable that defines how the business leverages the solution I am implementing. It must satisfy the Use Case Scenario and Requirements Matrix.. I typically begin with the basics as SOP and then have the SMEs from the user base validate the system by developing an EUP (End User Procedure) during proof-of-concept unit testing and refining again at proof-of-concept end-to-end validation.
As far as leveraging SOPs for my own project work... well, I haven't had to. Most of my projects are too dynamic for the rigidity of an SOP. It doesn't fit, however. if part of my project work is to document into a tool or system and I need to delegate that to team members at times, I might draw up and SOP/Checklist or some such artifact to help standardize that. Saving Changes...
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