What is the Method of Procedure?
A Method of Procedure is a step-by-step guideline for finishing a particular task. It is often used for accomplishing business processes. MOPs help businesses to remove the guesswork and reduce human error. Most companies prefer to write the method of procedure to guide employees through adding a server to the network. The concept of MOPs came from the technical employees in fields such as construction, data center management, and electrical work.
These industries created the MOP to ensure their teams had the specific sequence and details regarding tools and took safety precautions before beginning the task.
However, today the usage of MOP is not limited to these industries. Various teams in other sectors are using the method of procedure to send the right message.
MOPs vary depending on the project, but the essential components of the procedure are author, date, approval signature, identifier, and version control. It also has prerequisites, safety necessities, special tools and parts, a back-out plan, and procedure sequencing.
SOP vs. MOP
SOP (Standard operating procedure) and MOP (Method of procedure) are not the same. The standard operating procedure is also a written guideline for completing a business task but the scope of an SOP focuses on how employees should handle the job. On the other hand, the method of procedure focuses on predefined steps of an activity or task. So, technically SOP offers more freedom to an employee.
What is the use of the Method of Procedure?
Method of procedure helps to implement new features to a product, and it also helps with process building and managing complex data centers.
It is further used to eliminate ambiguous estimations and human errors. The stepwise process improves the focus on the target by offering streamlined guidance.
What are the advantages of using a Method of Procedure?
Eliminates Guesswork
When employees don't have a particular procedure to follow, they end up doing the guesswork. And it can result in bad outcomes. Having a method of procedure helps to increase the employee's efficiency by eliminating guesswork as all they have to do is follow a step-by-step guide to finish a particular task. It also improves their focus as they are less likely to waste time figuring out their following action.
Step-by-Step Guidance
Whether building a rigid process for taking new requests from stakeholders or implementing new features in a product roadmap, MOP can come to your rescue. It enlists a step-by-step guide which makes it easy for the employees to follow.
Provides Clarity
Everything is written in much detail in the method of procedure. The language used is also simple, crisp, and concise. Thus, it offers a lot of clarity to the third party after publication.
Saves Time
It saves a lot of time and enhances the employees' productivity as they know exactly what they need to do to achieve the desired outcome of a task.
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What should a Method of Procedure include?
Some of the things that a MOP must have are:
1. A title
Give your MOP a title that explains its purpose. Keep it clear and concise, so it's easily understandable.
2. Description of the procedure
This is the crucial part of creating a MOP. Explain the operational or desktop procedure in detail. The objective of using a MOP is to simplify the techniques for everyone. Make sure you don't include any complicated jargons in it to fulfill this objective.
3. Other approvals include signature, authority, date, unique identifier, and version control.
Fill out all the required fields regarding the approval, and not having this can cause misunderstandings in the organization.
4. Other information that enlists safety requirements, special tools and parts, procedure sequencing, and a back-out plan
If this procedure needs any specific tools and safety rules in place, then make sure you add them. The safety of employees should be of the utmost importance to you. Make sure you don't forget to add the steps regarding safety requirements for the procedure.
5. In-depth step-by-step instructions on the procedure
Include each and every step that anyone would require to complete the task. Don't write anything that's too vague or confusing. Write the steps in chronological order to avoid any confusion. Every step needs to mention what needs to be done and the expected result for the same.
Add a mechanism that allows employees to mark each step as done once executed. You can also incorporate a timestamp that logs in events if you later need a detailed analysis.
How to create a MOP with Scribe?
What if we tell you that you can eliminate the document work for creating a MOP? This sounds too good to be true, but we have made this possible. You can speed up the creation process for a MOP with Scribe. Here's how:
1. Head over to the Scribe website
- Log in or sign up for your account.
- Install the chrome extension
- Click on the extension whenever you wish to create a new MOP.
- Once you click on the extension, it will generate a pop up and you need to click on ‘Start Recording’ and it will begin recording the screen. So whenever you click on the screen for the next step, it will generate a new Scribe for it.
- Once you're done, click on the extension again and click on ‘Stop Recording.’
- Once done, it wil take you to the next page where you can edit the Scribe and add the description as you wish. You can also delete or download those screenshots.
- You can either merge a few scribes, add timestamps, and switch the toggl on for team or public comments from the side panel. To share the Scribe click on "Share." It will generate a pop up and either you can send it to the designated email ids or you can copy the link and send it individually.
- Once finished, click on "Done."
Wanna know the best part? We can document all of the steps we showed you above, in Scribe. Check out these instructions, that only took 30 seconds to make
Sometimes it really can be that easy.
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Wrapping up
Method of procedures is an integral part of any organization and, if ignored, can create various issues while operating. However, MOPs are only effective when they're accurate, complete, and followed strictly. This will reduce the chances of any human error while doing the work.
Organizations must train their employees on the different processes too.
Creating a method of procedure is one thing but documenting the steps in the proper flow is another thing. Scribe helps you speed up the MOPs creation and allows you to document your MOPs in the best way possible. Get the benefits of this new technique and sign up for Scribe today. Do you want to know the best part? It's free to get started.
