OPERATIONS MANUAL

An operations manual is a compilation of administrative documentation that people reference during their daily activities. An office, entire organization, or a project can have an operations manual.

What goes in an operations manual? Plenty. You can have copies of forms and instructions for completing them; copies of procedures on personnel, logistical, transportation, and other administrative matters; phone and equipment lists; organization charts; and anything else you deem important.

Your operations manual need not look like the product of a giant publishing house. You can place the material in a three-ring binder. You can also group the contents according to some logical schema and separate each group by a divider.

The operations manual is advantageous because it is a communications medium that provides standards and guidelines for doing business.

for Developing an Operations Manual

• Determine the scope of the manual.
• Determine the contents of the manual (e.g., forms, personnel, equipment, organization).
• Prepare a table of contents.
• Assign someone to initially develop and eventually maintain the manual.
• Determine the mode of distribution (e.g., hardcopy, Web).
• Determine the binding, if applicable.