sop-maintenance

# SOP Maintenance

SOPs require ongoing maintenance to remain accurate and useful. This skill covers strategies for keeping SOPs current, managing versions, and ensuring SOPs evolve with your systems.

## Key Concepts

### SOP Lifecycle

1. **Creation**: Initial SOP development
2. **Active Use**: SOP is being executed regularly
3. **Update**: Modifications to reflect changes
4. **Deprecation**: SOP is outdated but referenced
5. **Archive/Removal**: SOP is no longer needed

### Why SOPs Become Outdated

- **Technology Changes**: Tools, frameworks, or languages updated
- **Process Evolution**: Workflows improve or change
- **Environment Changes**: Infrastructure or deployment changes
- **Discovery**: Better approaches found through experience
- **External Dependencies**: Third-party services change APIs

## Best Practices

### Version Control for SOPs

Treat SOPs as code:

```bash
# Store SOPs in git repository
my-sops/
├── .git/
├── deployment/
│   ├── deploy-web-app.sop.md
│   └── rollback-deployment.sop.md
├── development/
│   ├── code-review.sop.md
│   └── feature-implementation.sop.md
└── README.md
```

**Commit Messages:**

```bash
git commit -m "feat(deployment): add health check step to deploy-web-app.sop"
git commit -m "fix(code-review): correct security checklist items"
git commit -m "docs(development): update feature-implementation with new test framework"
```

### SOP Versioning

Include version information in SOP metadata:

```markdown
# Deploy Application to Production

**Version**: 2.1.0
**Last Updated**: 2025-12-05
**Author**: DevOps Team
**Status**: Active

## Changelog

### v2.1.0 (2025-12-05)
- Added automated rollback triggers
- Updated health check thresholds

### v2.0.0 (2025-11-15)
- Migrated to Kubernetes from Docker Swarm
- Added canary deployment steps

### v1.0.0 (2025-09-01)
- Initial deployment SOP
```

### Keeping SOPs Current

**Regular Review Schedule:**

```markdown
## SOP Maintenance Schedule

- **Monthly**: Review frequently-used SOP