Operations
Finding where the SOP and the real procedure came apart
Every written procedure starts accurate and drifts. A worker compares the document to how the work actually ran and reports the difference.
What the worker does
An AI worker in Polaris maintains standard operating procedures by comparing each written document against how the work actually ran in Slack and in task history, then reporting drift: steps nobody performs, steps people perform that are not written down, and named owners who have changed role. The document owner decides whether to change the procedure or correct the practice.
- Connections
- Slack · Google Drive · Docs
- Reports
- Steps skipped, steps added, owners moved
- Cadence
- Per review interval you set
Drift is invisible until the wrong person has to follow the document
The people who run a procedure daily stopped needing the document years ago. They know the current version because they are the current version. The document sits there, quietly describing a step that was removed and a person who left.
It gets discovered on the day it matters most: a new hire follows it, or someone covers a holiday, or an auditor asks to see it.
Comparing a document to reality is a genuinely tedious job with a clear method, which is a good description of what to give a worker. It reads the document, reads how the work actually ran, and lists the differences without deciding which side is correct.
The two kinds of drift, and why they are different problems
Both show up in the same report, and each needs a different human response.
The document is behind
- A step in the doc that nobody has done in months
- A tool named that the team stopped using
- An owner who has changed role or left
- An approval that was removed and never deleted from the page
The practice has slipped
- A check in the document that people skip when busy
- A step performed in a different order than written
- An approval routinely done after the fact
- An exception that has quietly become the normal path
What the drift report contains
The step, quoted from the document
With the version it came from, since docs in Polaris are versioned.
The evidence, or the absence of it
Links to the runs where the step appeared, or a plain statement that no instance was found in the window examined.
The window examined
"No instance in the last 20 runs" is a finding. "No instance found" without a window is not.
A question for the owner
Should the document change, or should the practice? The worker asks. It does not answer.
Where the ownership sits
| Action | Who |
|---|---|
| Detect the drift and evidence it | The worker |
| Decide whether the step still matters | The document owner |
| Update the document | The worker drafts, the owner approves |
| Correct the practice | The manager responsible for the work |
| Retire a procedure entirely | The owner, on the record, with a date |
Questions people ask
+How does the worker know how the work actually ran?
From the trace the work leaves: the task history in the workspace and the Slack threads where the steps get discussed. Where a procedure leaves no trace anywhere, the worker will say it could not evidence the step rather than assuming it happened.
+How often should SOPs be re-checked?
Give each document a review interval and let it become a recurring task with an owner in the Focus lane. Quarterly suits most procedures; anything tied to a control or an audit commitment usually deserves more.
+Can it write a new SOP from nothing?
That is the process documentation job rather than this one. Documentation creates the first version from evidence; maintenance keeps it honest afterwards. Most teams need the first once and the second forever.
+What if two teams follow the same SOP differently?
The report will show it, which is usually the most useful thing it finds. Whether they should converge is a decision for the person who owns the procedure, and it is a much easier conversation with the evidence in front of both teams.
Related
Operations work with an AI worker doing the chasing
Ops is the function that holds the seams together. Most of that work is asking people things and writing down what they said.
Getting a process out of one person's head
The process exists. It is in someone's habits and in six months of Slack threads. A worker interviews and reads until it is on a page.
Compliance checklists with evidence attached and gaps named
A checklist where every line is ticked and nothing is evidenced is not a control. It is a document that will fail an audit slowly.
Policy documents that stay current and show their changes
A policy nobody has updated in three years is worse than no policy. A worker keeps the drafts moving and the versions visible. A qualified adviser signs them off.
Hire an AI technical writer
The documentation debt on your team is not a writing problem, it is a nobody-has-two-free-hours problem, and this is the worker for those two hours.
Hire an AI ops coordinator
It writes down how your company does things, so the answer stops living in whichever colleague happens to be on holiday.
Connect Slack to Polaris
Six scopes, no access to direct messages, and a bot that only reads the channels somebody invited it into.
Acceptance criteria
Written before the work, checkable after it, and binary either way.