Purpose of the Procedure
Important
This section is a fundamental building block of any SOP
The ‘Purpose’ section of an SOP should provide a clear and concise statement of why the procedure exists and its intended role within the organisation/laboratory. It should outline the specific goals the procedure aims to achieve, and explain how it contributes to broader workflows, services, or regulatory requirements. This helps users understand the value and relevance of the procedure in context.
Depending on the type of procedure, the purpose may describe:
The operational or clinical need the procedure addresses.
The outcomes or deliverables it is designed to produce.
Its position within a larger workflow or diagnostic service.
Example content:
🧬 Bioinformatics QC Procedure
Example content from a bioinformatics SOP outlining the procedure for assessing the quality of Illumina sequencing data prior to downstream bioinformatics analyses.
Purpose
This SOP describes the process for performing quality control on sequencing datasets generated within the laboratory. It ensures that all microbial sequencing data meet the minimum quality standards required for downstream analysis, interpretation, and reporting.
👩🔬 Staff Training Procedure
Example content from an SOP outlining a training procedure
Purpose
The purpose of this SOP is to provide a standardised, organisation-wide procedure for planning, delivering, and documenting staff training activities within ISO-in-a-Box. The SOP defines the required steps for preparing training sessions, conducting structured skills transfer, supervising practice, and assessing competency using the Tell–Show–Do–Apply instructional model.
This SOP ensures that all internal training regardless of topic, platform, or discipline is delivered in a consistent, quality-assured manner and that all training records and competency assessments meet ISO-aligned QMS requirements.
🌌 Galaxy Training Procedure
Example content from a training SOP detailing the standardised procedure for training on the Galaxy platform
Purpose
The purpose of this SOP is to provide standardized guidance for training users in the development, execution, and management of analysis workflows within the Galaxy platform. This document ensures that trainees gain the knowledge and practical skills needed to navigate the Galaxy environment, create reproducible computational workflows, run analyses accurately, troubleshoot common issues in Galaxy, and maintain proper documentation within Galaxy. Establishing a consistent training procedure promotes consistent skill development and ensures competency assessment.
🧪 Laboratory Procedure
Example content from a wet-lab SOP outlining the procedure for preparing sequencing libraries using the Illumina DNA Prep kit.
Purpose
This SOP defines the laboratory’s standardised procedure for the preparation of sequencing libraries using the Illumina DNA Prep Library Preparation Kit. The procedure supports the laboratory’s sequencing workflows by enabling the reliable conversion of extracted DNA into dual-indexed libraries.
💻 Code Update & Review Procedure
Example content from an SOP outlining the procedure for updating and reviewing code within the Luma Genomics Unit (LGU).
Purpose
Bioinformatics pipelines are composed of code (software), which will require updating over time as bugs are identified and fixed and new features are added. In the cases where this involves code being produced within the Luma Genomics Unit (LGU), this should be subject to a review before updates are pushed to production systems.
This SOP covers the processes by which (a) proposals for changes are made, reviewed, and changes actioned; and (b) resulting changes are reviewed to ensure consistency and adherence to organisational policies and standards.