Procedure

Procedure

A procedure is a specified series of actions or operations^{[disambiguation needed]} which have to be executed in the same manner in order to always obtain the same result under the same circumstances (for example, emergency procedures).

In telecommunications, this is the premise under which a SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) is generated. A SOP is specifically designed to describe and guide multiple iterations of the same procedure over a broad number of locations, on multiple occasions, and over an open period of time until such SOP is updated for whatever reason, or discontinued.

Used heavily in the telecommunications industry, a MOP differes from a SOP in that it contains specific directives for that particular activity, on that particular date, for that specific location or piece of equipment. In todays business model, wherein telecom providers can be both "provider" and "user", most "user" organizations require a MOP from the service provider whenever an acitivity has the potential to cause a traffic-affecting outage. The industry standard is <50ms of traffic interuption. If a "switch hit" or traffic interuption is 50 ms or less, it is "transparent" to the bit stream carrying the traffic, and is therefore considered "hitless" and non-traffic affecting