Configuring standard operating procedures

A standard operating procedure is a set of instructions that describes all the relevant steps and activities of a process or procedure. Standard operating procedures are essential to an organization to deliver consistent, measured, high-quality responses to complex and unpredictable events.

The following list outlines how standard operating procedures are created and used:

A list is created of all the issues that might occur in a target environment and need a managed response. The list is created based on previous experience and applied knowledge.
A subject matter expert writes a procedure to manage the issue, for example:
- Who is involved?
- When are they involved?
- How are they involved?
- What supplies the updated data or receives an action?
When the response procedure is defined, a standard operating procedure administrator configures a standard operating procedure definition.
Standard operating procedures can be started manually or automatically during run time.
Standard operating procedure activities can be tracked and integrated in the IBM® Intelligent Operations Center user interface.

Configuring standard operating procedure definitions
When you define a standard operating procedure, you define activities that are included in the standard operating procedure. You can specify the order in which some or all of the activities in a standard operating procedure are executed. For example, you can specify that a particular activity is not started until the previous activity is completed or skipped. You also assign owners and monitors to the standard operating procedure.
Copying, deleting, and refreshing definitions
Instead of creating a new standard operating procedure definition each time, you can copy an existing standard operating procedure definition, and then use it as the starting point for creating another definition. You can also delete and refresh definitions.
Working with drafts and approvals
When you create a standard operating procedure definition, a draft version is saved initially. When you submit a draft version for approval, a version of the standard operating procedure definition is saved, where the version name is the approval time stamp value. You can create another draft that is based on an approved version.
Viewing and editing definitions
Use the following procedure to view and edit standard operating procedure definitions.
Launching standard operating procedures
You can manually launch an instance of a standard operating procedures in the Solution Administration view.
Viewing and editing instances of a standard operating procedure
For a standard operating procedure definition, you can review the instances of the standard operating procedure that have been launched. You can view an instance in the Standard Operating Procedure Details window, where you can edit an instance, or change the status of an instance.
Exporting and importing standard operating procedure definitions
You can export your standard operating procedure definitions as an XML file, and import a previously exported standard operating procedure definitions file.
Working with references
The reference library contains links that are useful and easily accessible for completing standard operating procedures; for example, phone lists, email addresses, forms, and notification templates. You can add, edit, delete, and launch references in the standard operating procedure reference library.
Adding notification templates
You can add a notification template to the reference library that can be used to send an email; for example, in a notification activity.

Parent topic: Configuring the solution

Related tasks:

Routing data from your data source