SOP: One master doc vs many small docs

SOP: One master doc vs many small docs

Run this whenever your process documentation is either an unsearchable monster or scattered everywhere.

Stage 1 — Diagnose (owner: docs owner)
☐ Do readers need the whole thing in order, or jump to one section?
☐ How many people edit it at once, and how often does it conflict?
☐ Can you link deep into a single section reliably?

Stage 2 — Choose
☐ One master doc: easy to read top-to-bottom, single search. Use for onboarding guides and end-to-end SOPs read in sequence. Cost: edit conflicts, slow load, stale sections hide.
☐ Many small docs: each owned, updated, linked. Use for reference libraries and team runbooks. Cost: navigation overhead, link rot.

Stage 3 — Guardrails (owner: docs owner)
☐ Either way, one index page is the entry point.
☐ Every doc carries an owner and last-reviewed date.
☐ Done-when: a newcomer finds any topic in 2 clicks.

Trigger: docs feel wrong-sized. Done-when: structure and index decided.

Save this. Run it every time.