Guidyy

Documentation glossary

Plain-English definitions of the terms that come up most in process and operational documentation.

What is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?

A standard operating procedure (SOP) is a documented set of step-by-step instructions for performing a routine task. Here's what makes a good one — and how to write yours in 60 seconds.

What is a Runbook?

A runbook is a step-by-step playbook for responding to a specific operational event — like an alert, an incident, or a scheduled maintenance task.

What is Process Documentation?

Process documentation describes how a cross-functional workflow runs end-to-end — including the handoffs between teams.

What is a Knowledge Base?

A knowledge base is a centralized library of documentation — internal (team wikis) or external (help centers). It's the surface; SOPs, runbooks, and process docs are the content.

What is a Work Instruction?

A work instruction is the operator-level detail nested inside an SOP — the exact clicks, keystrokes, and decisions needed to complete one task step.

What is an Interactive Demo?

An interactive demo is a clickable, guided walkthrough of a product — recorded once, replayed endlessly, with no live environment required.

What is Standard Work?

Standard work is the documented, agreed-upon best way to perform a task right now — the baseline a team improves from, not a rulebook set in stone.

What is a Job Aid?

A job aid is a quick-reference tool used at the moment of doing a task — not read ahead of time and memorized, but glanced at mid-task.

What is a Process Checklist?

A process checklist is a linear list of steps to confirm before, during, or after a task — built to catch omissions, not to explain technique.

What is Business Process Management (BPM)?

BPM is the discipline of modeling, running, measuring, and improving an organization's processes — a management practice, not a single piece of software.

What is Tribal Knowledge?

Tribal knowledge is process know-how that lives only in people's heads — never written down, passed on informally, and lost the moment someone leaves.

What is a Document Management System (DMS)?

A DMS stores, versions, and controls access to documents — it's where finished documentation lives, not where it gets produced.

What is Document Version Control?

Document version control tracks every revision to a document so you know what changed, when, and by whom — and can roll back a bad edit.

What is an Onboarding Checklist?

An onboarding checklist is the sequence of setup tasks a new hire (or new client) needs to complete — accounts, tools, first meetings — tracked to completion.

What is an Escalation Path?

An escalation path is the documented chain of who to contact, in what order, when a task or incident exceeds what the current person can resolve.

What is Root Cause Analysis (RCA)?

Root cause analysis is the process of tracing a problem back to its actual origin, not just the symptom that made it visible.

What is a Changelog?

A changelog is a running, dated record of what changed in a product or process release over release — bug fixes, new features, breaking changes.

What is a User Manual?

A user manual is comprehensive, reference-style documentation covering every feature of a product — meant to be searched, not read start to finish.

What is a Training Matrix?

A training matrix is a grid mapping each role or employee against the skills and certifications they need, and their current completion status.

What are Desk Procedures?

Desk procedures (or desktop procedures) document exactly how one specific person does their job — written for their eventual replacement, not the whole team.

What is a Process Map?

A process map is a visual flowchart of a workflow's steps, decision points, and handoffs between people or systems — the shape of a process, not the detail of each step.

What is a Quality Management System (QMS)?

A QMS is the documented set of policies, processes, and records an organization uses to consistently meet quality and regulatory requirements — the backbone of ISO 9001 and similar certifications.

What is a Digital Adoption Platform (DAP)?

A digital adoption platform overlays in-app walkthroughs and tooltips onto live software to teach users a tool while they use it, instead of before.

What is Screen Recording?

Screen recording captures what happens on a display over time — video, or in Guidyy's case, individual clicks turned into discrete, editable steps rather than raw footage.

What is Asynchronous Communication?

Asynchronous communication doesn't require both people present at the same time — a message, a recorded guide, or a doc that gets read and acted on whenever it's convenient.

What is a Single Source of Truth?

A single source of truth is the one authoritative, current copy of a piece of information — everything else is a pointer to it, not a duplicate.