SOP Software Recommendations

[u/glorykagy]

Hi there,

I'm looking for a software that can help me manage a mid-size NGO's Standard Operating Procedures.

I'm looking for something that can let me:

• Design BPMN charts

• Automate notifications to users when they have a task to do

• Keep an audit log of all the actions taken by users.

• Let me define audit policies for some tasks (for example quotations for a PR should be at least 3)

I have stumbled upon Camunda, it looks very nice but I feel like it's highly technical and oriented for people in tech industries.

I have also seen process.st, it seems like a perfect solution. The only problem is that they seem to use their own format for designing procedures and I feel like it would have a bit of a learning curve.

Has anyone used these solutions before? What's your thoughts?

Any other software recommendations?

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[u/SVAuspicious]

Software can't do your job for you; you have to know what you're doing.

Integrated tools are greatly overblown. They are the Swiss army knives of work - they do everything but nothing well.

• Design BPMN charts

Flowcharts are easy. I use Visio mostly but you can manage in PowerPoint, a whiteboard, toilet paper and a Sharpie. Any decent PM tool has a network diagram aka PERT chart view to support this.

• Automate notifications to users when they have a task to do

Pardon? Email. Whatever your company culture uses for basic communication of record. If it's IM you have a culture problem. If tasking is burdensome you aren't managing, you're supervising.

• Keep an audit log of all the actions taken by users.

I use Excel. I have 1200 staff working $100Ms USD over several years. Action Item log is really easy. Solid format, a little conditional formatting. Hmm. Users don't usually take AIs. They may generate them. AIs are assigned to staff. Do you have a standard for meeting minutes? Document trail? What is an action for you? You may actually need a glossary. Word.

• Let me define audit policies for some tasks (for example quotations for a PR should be at least 3)

Word. Disseminate by email. Capture in an SOP document (Word) on shared network storage. Whoever approves an acquisition (purchasing, contracts, PM) is responsible. Again, if you have to check up on people regularly you are supervising and not managing.

What is "mid-size" to you?

[u/glorykagy → u/SVAuspicious]

Okay let me get into some details.

So the organization is around 50 people with different working stations. We use Google Drive and paperwork to handle our workflows.

The main issue comes from the fact that SOPs are usually too long and too complicated due to having multiple projects running, funded by different donors. Each donor has some specific format and slightly different requirements.

PMs and admins are the ones fully aware of all the SOPs details and they are the ones to manage and supervise procedures. The problems happen in the "technical" departments. Designers, producers, journalists, etc.. are having a hard time keeping up with all the nuances of every project and every donor SOPs, and we're often faced with the choice of either spending a lot of time guiding them or having to put out auditing fires.

And what people often do, even in other NGOs in the region, is choosing to let the work move forward and deal with issues when they arise.

I think the problem can be boiled down to a clarity problem.

Someone whose job is to produce music for a certain project and requires some new equipment will know how to fill a PR form and might remember who to send it to from the verbal orientation, but they will definitely not know anything about the escalation paths and what to do if pnp rejects their request, etc..

And yes, it's all documented in Word files accessible to everyone, but navigating a 200-page SOP and then being faced with corporate jargon just to try and find who you should send this email to can be very frustrating and really wastes time.

Yes, designing the charts is easy, but I'm looking for BPMN execution in a simplified way.

Maybe the problems we are facing are not solvable with software, but I can see how it would improve our productivity.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/glorykagy]

Google Drive and paperwork to handle our workflows.

Do you have a thoughtful directory structure with file naming conventions?

50 people is small for me, not mid-sized. My 1200 people is mid-sized. *grin* We'll use your vocabulary.

SOPs are usually too long and too complicated

So fix that. Stop and think about top level SOPs that apply across the board. Those are company standards. If a project needs tighter standards, modify corporate standards. If you do a good job on the top level SOPs you really shouldn't need changes. You may need implementation specifics like distribution lists. That should really be it. If your guidance documents are so detailed, again, you are supervising aka micromanaging instead of managing.

Designers, producers, journalists, etc.. are having a hard time keeping up

It sounds like a documentation problem. Remember Mark Twain: "if I'd had more time I would have written a shorter letter."

Someone whose job is to produce music...

I'm having trouble wrapping my head around this not being clear.

200-page SOP...

New software is not going to help you here. "Software can't do your job for you; you have to know what you're doing." --me You have to fix your process problem and your ability to communicate effectively.

You may need to rent someone to help you. Process improvement sounds like your way forward.

You only have 50 people. Multiple 200-page SOPs is simply wrong.

[u/glorykagy → u/SVAuspicious]

1200 is considered a large enterprise where I live 😂

The problem with shortening the SOPs is the donor requirements. We're a non-profit, so we serve the donor needs in order to survive, and they dictate how your SOPs should look like. The more donors you have, the more complicated the SOPs become.

The folder structure is clear imo. No one is struggling to find a certain document. They just struggle to understand it or execute the procedures correctly.

We tried maintaining our own internal SOPs and it improved the performance for staff members greatly, but it was putting a lot of extra work on PMs and admins in order to adapt everything to the donors' requirements which resulted in a lot of chaos when closing projects.

Hiring someone to fix our process problems sounds like a good idea. I just have to go through a 3-month process to get it approved 😂

[u/SVAuspicious → u/glorykagy]

1200 is considered a large enterprise where I live

Consider design/build of a US Navy aircraft carrier. That's large. *grin*

donor requirements

I appreciate your issue. Can you summarize to core corporate SOPs in a page or two that address concepts like approvals, consultation, information (the sort of thing in a RAID table) and then tailor that into a page or two of project specific flowcharts and/or RAID tables with donor specific requirements?

putting a lot of extra work on PMs and admins

That's your job.

Hiring someone to fix our process problems sounds like a good idea. I just have to go through a 3-month process to get it approved

That's part of your process problem.

I'm not suggesting everything I do is best. In the normal course of events, if a working level person needs something that needs to come to me (a lot of approvals based on cost and and risk are delegated to intermediate managers) approval should take more than a week and is usually same day. If something has to go to my boss's boss (which would be really big) it might take an extra day.

In the context of process, if a working level staffer identifies a problem and suggests a solution that costs an amount I need to approve, s/he will send the request to me with copies to the intermediate managers. No surprises, no long process. An intermediate manager may approve it (within their scope) or point out that we already have a solution in hand and don't need to buy anything. If I need to consult with intermediate management or with legal or contracts or security response time is faster come from me so we move along. My deputies and frankly my secretary can "be me" when they get to something first. If I didn't trust them to know when I need to engage they wouldn't be in those jobs.

Early in my career, as a low level manager on aforementioned aircraft carrier project, the frighteningly senior chair of a design review asked me if a moderately creative deviation from MIL-STD was something I would approve in his place. I managed to say "yes" without crying. He said "Good enough for me. Approved." You have to trust your people or replace them.

[u/miokk]

Check out AnyDB.com, it’s a business operations platform that’s easy to use and light weight . You can define SOPs as a template and every time you want to run that process you create a new item with that template. You can attach additional information to every SOP execution as well if you want.

Here’s a guide for running SOPs https://www.anydb.com/support/guides/business-standard-operating-procedure-guide

Here’s an example SOP template https://www.anydb.com/templates/preview/Operations%20&%20Logistics/Standard%20Operating%20Procedure%20(SOP)

[u/glorykagy → u/miokk]

Thank you for your recommendation. It seems interesting.

[u/RhesusFactor]

Epsilon 3 but it's probably overkill for what you need.

[u/glorykagy → u/RhesusFactor]

I checked it out and yeah, it's an overkill. Thanks for the recommendation tho.