Army Tactical Standard Operating Procedures (ATP 3-90. 90)

Book excerpt: Army Techniques Publication (ATP) 3-90.90 facilitates development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) in order to enhance efficiency and adaptability across the force. ATP 3-90.90 achieves this purpose through linking to a milWiki portal under the milSuite uniform resource locator (URL) containing guidance for tactical SOPs and unclassified examples of SOPs for reference. The SOP portal provides a baseline for developing new SOPs quickly and a forum for improving existing SOPs. The portal presents best practices consistent with doctrinal principles. The Combined Arms Doctrine Directorate established the SOP portal in 2009. The authors attempted to align the original information with pertinent doctrine and regulations. Where the portal's contents differ from current doctrine and regulations, the latter take precedence. The information in the SOP portal is not authoritative doctrine. The examples in the portal do not provide ready-to-use SOPs for Army units. Soldiers developing SOPs for their units are encouraged to apply critical thinking while referring to the models and other resources to aid their own content development. At a minimum, portal users must be familiar with this ATP, Field Manuals (FMs) 5-0 and 6-99.2; Army Regulations (ARs) 25-1, 34-4, and 380-5; and Department of the Army Pamphlet (DA Pam) 25-403. Soldiers are encouraged to use the portal to collaborate, to improve the portal's contents, and to upload new SOP examples. The SOP portal is secure and requires an Army Knowledge Online or Defense Knowledge Online login. The portal's contents are unclassified. Neither this manual nor the SOP portal is intended to regulate the appearance or content of unit SOPs. This ATP uses joint terms where applicable. When formal military terms are identified in the text of this ATP, the terms are italicized and the number of the proponent manual follows the definition. A standard operating procedure is a set of instructions covering those features of operations which lend themselves to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness. The procedure is applicable unless ordered otherwise (JP 3-31). A SOP is both standing and standard: it instructs how to perform a prescribed and accepted process established for completing a task. Features of operations that lend themselves to standardization are common and usually detailed processes performed often and requiring minimal variation each time. Well-written and properly used unit tactical SOPs enhance effective execution of tasks; the benefits of SOPs are numerous. They reduce training time, the loss of unwritten information, the commission of errors, the omission of essential steps or processes, and the time required for completion of tasks. This does not mean, however, that carrying out SOPs never requires thought or that SOPs should never change. Indeed, tactical units must change some operating procedures as rapidly as operational environments and missions change. The SOP portal helps units avoid an unnecessary loss of effectiveness that could occur by maintaining unthinking dependence on outdated written procedures. The portal also helps units avoid a loss of effectiveness that could occur when units delay writing down processes that need to become standardized. The doctrine in this manual provides techniques for developing unit tactical SOPs. Units throughout the Army can take advantage of technology to obtain guidance, collaborate in real time, and find information quickly. This manual and the SOP portal are intended to enhance operational adaptability Army-wide. In the short term, the information in the SOP portal will help units establish or improve SOPs more rapidly. In the long term, the intention is that more and more units will build SOPs using the portal and the doctrine in this manual. SOPs throughout the Army should increase in similarity as the combination of doctrinal guidance and Army-wide milWiki collaboration facilitates consensus.