SOP and Documentation Template

Writing your capstone down so someone else could run it — and so you can, six months from now.

Why this is part of the capstone

An undocumented automation is a liability with a countdown on it. It breaks while you are away, or you return to it in March and cannot remember what it does.

It is also the difference between "I built a thing" and "I built a thing my team uses", which is the difference that matters professionally.

The one-page SOP

One per workflow. If it does not fit on a page, the workflow is too complicated.

# SOP: [NAME]

Owner: [WHO]            Backup: [WHO]
Created: [DATE]         Last reviewed: [DATE]

## WHAT IT DOES
[Two sentences. What problem, what outcome.]

## WHEN IT RUNS
Trigger: [PRECISELY WHAT]
Filter:  [WHAT IS EXCLUDED]
Volume:  [N] per [PERIOD]

## THE STEPS
1. [STEP] -> [WHAT COMES OUT]
2. [STEP] -> [WHAT COMES OUT]
3. [STEP] -> [WHAT COMES OUT]

## WHERE THINGS LIVE
Workflow:     [LINK]
Prompts:      [LINK]
Knowledge:    [LINK]
Logs:         [LINK]
Credentials:  [WHERE, AND WHO CAN ROTATE THEM]

## THE HUMAN STEP
Who reviews: [WHO]
What they check: [SPECIFICALLY WHAT]
What happens if they do not: [CONSEQUENCE]

## WHEN IT BREAKS
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
|  |  |  |

TO STOP IT: [EXACT STEPS]
Manual fallback while it is down: [WHAT TO DO INSTEAD]
If you cannot fix it: [WHO TO CONTACT]

## COST
Per run: [X]    Per month: [Y]
Alert set at: [Z]

The three lines people omit and later need: how to stop it, the manual fallback, and who can rotate the credentials.

Writing it with AI

Here is my workflow: [DESCRIBE IT STEP BY STEP]
Here are the prompts it uses: [PASTE]

Write a one-page SOP using the template below.
Then tell me what you could NOT determine from what I gave you —
those are the gaps I need to fill in.

[PASTE TEMPLATE]

That second instruction is the useful part. The gaps it finds are exactly what a new person would ask.

The documentation checklist

Before you call the capstone done:

The what

• One-sentence description a non-technical person understands
• The problem it solves, and for whom
• What it deliberately does not do

The how

• Every step listed with its input and output
• Every prompt saved somewhere outside the workflow
• Model and temperature recorded per AI step
• Trigger and filter documented precisely

The operational

• How to stop it
• What breaks if it stops
• Manual fallback
• Known failure modes and their fixes
• Cost per run and per month
• Who owns it, and who covers when they are away

The evidence

• Baseline measurement, before
• Measurement after
• Screenshots or a short recording of it working
• At least one example of real input and output

The honest part

• What it does badly
• What I would build differently
• What I decided not to automate, and why

That last section is what distinguishes a capstone write-up from a sales pitch, and it is the section experienced people read first.

The demo

Two minutes. Three parts.

1. The before. "This took me 40 minutes every Monday. Here is what I actually did."
2. The after. Run it live, or show a recording. Real input, real output.
3. The number. "40 minutes to 6. Here is how I measured it."

Do not explain the architecture unless asked. Nobody cares which platform you used; they care that the problem went away.

The case study write-up

Useful for a portfolio, a performance review, or a client conversation.

PROBLEM
[Who had it, how often, what it cost them]

BASELINE
[The measurement, before]

APPROACH
[What you built, in plain English. Two paragraphs.]

RESULT
[The measurement, after. Be honest — include what did not improve.]

WHAT WENT WRONG
[The failures and what you learned. This section is the credibility.]

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY
[One or two things]

The "what went wrong" section is the one that gets you hired. Anyone can describe a working system; describing how you debugged it demonstrates you actually built it.

Review cadence

Date	Still in use?	Still working?	Cost	Changes made

Quarterly. If it has not been used in three months, turn it off — an unused automation still costs money and still breaks.