What is an SOP document? It is the written form of a standard operating procedure: the page, or the record in a system, that carries the header block, the seven sections, the numbered steps with the role first and the version history. The procedure is the way the task is done; the document is the thing that makes the procedure standard, because it can be read by someone who was not there, approved by someone accountable and kept at one current version.
The document is what makes the procedure standard
A task done the same way by one person is a habit. The same task written down, approved and put in front of everyone who does it is a standard. The document is the difference, and its header, version, owner, approver and dates, is what lets a reader trust it.
What the document carries
Purpose, scope, roles and responsibilities, materials or systems, the procedure as numbered steps with decision points made explicit, the records produced, and the version history. The EPA's guidance on preparing SOPs, cited below, describes that shape; the standard operating procedure template on this site counts the sections from your own steps.
The document has a life
It is drafted from a walkthrough, reviewed, approved, trained against and released; then it is reviewed on a date or when the process changes, and each approved change is a new version with the old one retired. A document kept in software carries that life as metadata; one kept as a file loses it with every copy.
What it is not
Not a policy, which says what and why rather than how; not a work instruction, which is one task with pictures; not a checklist, which is the ticks the document's steps produce. Each is a separate document that refers to the SOP.
Questions people ask about what is an sop document
Is an SOP document the same as an SOP?
The SOP is the procedure; the document is its written, approved, versioned form. In practice the words are used interchangeably.
How long is a typical SOP document?
As long as the steps; the template prints a rough length in words from your figures, and the reading time that follows.
Who keeps the SOP document?
Its owner, at one current version, with a review date. That is the record side of this site's product.