Are standard operating procedures (SOPs) valued across industries?

IT Strategy & Roadmap Process Management Operations Management

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CISO in Software2 years ago

Coming from biotech in pharma, everything we did had to be done according to standard operating procedures (SOPs). I couldn't build a system without having an SOP with the hardening guidelines and everything I had to do for that server, or the work stations. Everything had SOPs and change control, and it was all documented. Everything had a remediation or response plan. When I went into software, it was as if all those practices went out the window because people didn’t care about them. It's hard to walk into those companies and say, "Hey, we have to follow a process here." They're like, "Nope. We have to get this pumped out in two weeks and you're not going to slow us down." That's often the biggest challenge.

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VP, Director of Cyber Incident Response in Finance (non-banking)2 years ago

I can absolutely relate to your challenge because the financial sector is similar to the healthcare sector in that sense. There’s a huge difference between being in either of those industries and being in the tech sector when it comes to SOPs. When I first came to the bank, they said, "Here's your standard operating procedure for malware, for DDoS, for everything else." And I thought, "This is great. All I have to do is read all this and I'll know how everybody does their jobs." It was such a blessing, coming from the tech sector. When I first walked into my job, I had to interview the 30 other people on the team so that I knew what they did. It was kind of a painful process and it took me a while to read all that documentation, but you get there eventually.

VP, Director of Cyber Incident Response in Finance (non-banking)2 years ago

We've acquired a number of small companies over the years for their technology, which is common. If you're a big company, you acquire smaller companies and you learn that they don't have an IT department or a security team. Johnny developer is his own administrator on his device or maybe in his department's network. There’s a lack of monitoring and structure, so I have to figure it all out once they’ve been acquired. They don't like you for it because you've taken away the privileges they've had thus far. They’ll point the finger at you saying, "You darn security politician. It's your fault that I can't do my job. It's your fault that my project's behind."

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SVP in Finance (non-banking)2 years ago

Change is hard. No matter what the intentions are, change is hard and people don't like it.

Chief Technology Officer in Media2 years ago

I always try to follow and apply the standard operating procedures in our company. That's the basic thing everyone should adapt. Everything stage of development need SOPs. Its easy for startups like us to form them and implement but as we gradually grow it will be hard to amend the changes in SOPs.

Director Of Technology in Education2 years ago

As a K-12 school we have other mechanisms (syllabus, policies, procedures, guidelines) but are not usually ones to value Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). SOPs seem a bit inflexible and leave little discretion. We do value SOPs for things such as COVID-19 protocols, IT onboarding and HR processes but not for education per se. Teaching and learning doesn't always align itself to a SOP.

Head IT IS in Construction2 years ago

Yes, SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are valued across industries. I am associated with four different industry verticals in my current work assignment. We have developed SOPs for most of the processes. In construction Hospitality and Facility management, we have SOPs for all major activities/process. SOPs help in making the process independant of the employees, helps in training as new appointees will have all the required information to work easily available in one place. SOPs make operations simpler and easy to review/diagnose.