SOP Library Contribution & Approval

Purpose

Define how Blinto team members request, create, improve, review, and publish operational knowledge while protecting the library from duplication and uncontrolled changes.

When to Use

Use this process whenever a team member:

• needs an SOP or other operational document that does not appear to exist;
• discovers missing or incorrect information;
• wants to improve an existing document;
• proposes a new checklist, template, policy, guide, or reference.

Core Workflow

1. Search first

Search the library using the process name, task, tool, department, and related terms.

2. Decide: update, link, or create

• Update when the knowledge belongs to an existing canonical document.
• Link when another document already owns the required knowledge.
• Create only when the proposed document has a distinct reusable purpose.

3. Propose the change

Changes should be proposed through a branch and pull request. A simple SOP request may begin as a GitHub Issue before anyone writes the document.

4. Review

The SOP Library Team reviews the proposal for:

• accuracy;
• operational clarity;
• duplication;
• correct document type;
• ownership;
• links to existing canonical knowledge;
• security or confidentiality concerns;
• consistency with the Library Standard.

5. Approve and merge

Approved changes are merged into main. The merged version becomes the canonical published version.

6. Publish downstream

After merge, downstream systems may automatically update:

• the internal SOP Library website;
• search/index data;
• Google Drive backup copies.

These downstream copies do not replace GitHub as the source of truth.

Requesting a New Document

A request should explain:

• what process or resource is missing;
• why it is needed;
• who uses it;
• the current way the work is performed, if known;
• any existing documents that may be related.

The SOP Library Team may decide that the correct action is to update an existing document rather than create a new one.

Improving an Existing Document

An improvement request should identify:

• the document;
• the affected section;
• what is incorrect, missing, or outdated;
• the proposed change or expected outcome;
• why the change is necessary.

Approval Principle

Contributors may propose changes, but publication to main should follow the repository's protected review process. The SOP Library Team acts as the publishing gatekeeper, not necessarily as the author of every document.

Emergency Corrections

Critical operational, security, compliance, or client-impacting errors should be corrected as quickly as possible while preserving review and version history wherever practical.

Ownership

Every document has an operational owner. Ownership means responsibility for the accuracy of the process. The SOP Library Team owns documentation governance and publishing quality.