How Long Should an SOP Be?

Most SOPs should be one to three pages. Document the 20 percent of steps that produce 80 percent of the results, not every edge case. If a document runs past five pages, split it or simplify it. A 40-page SOP is not rigor. It is fear written down, and nobody reads it mid-task.

I am a Certified EOS Implementer® in Denver and co-author of Process!, the official EOS book on the Process Component. Keep each process short enough to use during the work. Major steps, a few bullets each. Save the detailed checklists for the few steps where the cost of an error is high.