PROCESS

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Procedure

What a procedure is

A procedure is the ordered steps inside one part. Sub has already decided what the part is for, where its edges sit and what done means. The procedure takes those as given and fills in what happens between them: which steps the work takes, in what order, where it branches and who does each one.

A procedure has one entry and one end. It begins at the seam into its part, when work arrives with what the part needs to start. It ends at the part's done-state, when the work is ready to cross the next seam. Everything between those two points belongs to the procedure. Anything before the entry or after the end belongs to the neighbouring part, and to its procedure.

A procedure does not say how to do a single step well. It names the step, places it in order and gives it to a role. How the step is done (which screen, which field, what to look for) is the work of Guides. A procedure that tries to do both becomes too long to follow and too vague to check.

The highest possible standard is to design every procedure as the ordered steps inside one part, beginning at the seam into that part and ending at its done-state, taking the part's purpose and edges from Sub and leaving how each step is done to Guides.

Key Takeaway: A procedure is the ordered steps inside one part. Sub fixes the part's purpose, edges and done-state; the procedure fills in what happens between them. It has one entry (the seam into its part) and one end (the done-state). It names each step, places it in order and gives it to a role, but it does not say how a step is done well. That belongs to Guides.

Sub draws the edges of a part. A procedure fills in what happens between them.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Procedure · Discipline 1: A Procedure · Section: What a procedure is

MarvinPro | October 2026

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Where it sits on the ladder

The ladder has a rung for each kind of design, and a procedure has its own. Below the backbone, Sub cuts the process into its parts, Procedure lays out the steps inside each part, and Guides shows how a single step is done well. Each rung answers a different question, so each needs a different kind of text.

There is a simple test for which rung a text belongs on. A text that names parts and the seams between them is Sub. A text that lists steps and the order they run in is Procedure. A text that explains how to do one step is a Guide. The test works on any document, whatever it is called. Many documents called procedures turn out to be something else.

Most procedures that fail, fail by mixing rungs. They open with a map of the parts, move into a list of steps, and drop halfway into which button to press. The reader cannot tell what must be done from how it is usually done, and the owner cannot check any of it. One rung per text keeps each text usable. The procedure points down to its Guides and up to its part, and stays on its own rung.

The highest possible standard is to keep every procedure on its own rung, listing steps and their order and nothing above or below, testing each text by the question it answers, and pointing up to the part and down to the Guides rather than repeating them.

Key Takeaway: Each rung answers a different question. A text that names parts and seams is Sub, a text that lists steps and their order is Procedure, and a text that explains how to do one step is a Guide. Most procedures fail by mixing rungs, which makes them too long to follow and impossible to check. One rung per text keeps each one usable, with the procedure pointing up to its part and down to its Guides.

A procedure lists the steps and their order. Anything above belongs to Sub. Anything below belongs to Guides.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Procedure · Discipline 1: A Procedure · Section: Where it sits on the ladder

MarvinPro | October 2026

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One part, one procedure

A procedure that lives in one person's head works only while that person is there. It may work well for years. It works because that person remembers the order, knows which checks matter and catches what others would miss. On the day they are away, the part runs on whatever the next person thinks the order is.

Written down, a procedure can be followed by anyone in the role, on any day, with the same result. That is why every step goes to a role and never to a named person. The person changes. The role, and the steps it does, stay the same.

Each part has one procedure. Where the work varies, the agreed variants branch inside it, at a decision the procedure names. They do not become a second procedure running alongside the first. Two procedures for one part means two answers to the same question, and the part's done-state ends up depending on which one someone happened to follow.

The highest possible standard is to give every part one written procedure, followed by anyone in the role with the same result, with every step given to a role and every agreed variant branching inside it rather than becoming a second procedure.

Key Takeaway: A procedure that lives in one head works only while that person is there. Written down, it can be followed by anyone in the role, on any day, with the same result, because every step goes to a role rather than a person. Each part has one procedure, with agreed variants branching inside it at a named decision. Two procedures for one part give two answers to the same question.

A procedure in one head works until the day that person is away.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Procedure · Discipline 1: A Procedure · Section: One part, one procedure

MarvinPro | October 2026

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A real example

The software company's activation had been cut into its parts in Sub. Opening the account was one of them. It began when a settled payment arrived across the seam from settling, it checked on arrival that the customer and the plan were present and valid, and it ended with an account open and the entitlement recorded against it. The part was well designed. Its steps had never been written down.

For two years, the same experienced person did most of the work, and did it in the same order every time: the check on arrival first, then the account, then the entitlement. When the email address was already in use, the case went back to settling by the way back. No one thought of that order as a design. It was simply how the work was done.

Then that person took three weeks' holiday. A colleague in the same role covered, and opened the account first, planning to check afterwards. When the email address was already in use, a second account opened for the same customer. The entitlement was recorded against one of the two. Customers logged in to the other and found nothing there, and the support process took the calls.

Nothing in the part's design was wrong. The check was there and so was the way back. What was missing was the order, and the order had only ever lived in one head. The fix was to write the procedure down: one entry at the seam, the steps in the order they run, the decision on the email address, a role for each step and one end at the done-state. The rest of this volume takes each of those pieces in turn.

The check was designed. The order was only remembered.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Procedure · Discipline 1: A Procedure · A real example

MarvinPro | October 2026

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A Procedure

A procedure is the ordered steps inside one part. Sub gives it its edges: one entry at the seam into the part and one end at the part's done-state. The procedure fills in what happens between them, naming each step, placing it in order and giving it to a role, while how each step is done well belongs to Guides.

A procedure sits on its own rung. A text that names parts is Sub, a text that lists steps and their order is Procedure, and a text that explains how to do one step is a Guide. Keeping to one rung keeps the procedure short enough to follow and clear enough to check.

And each part has one procedure, written down so that anyone in the role can follow it with the same result, with agreed variants branching inside it rather than beside it. A procedure that lives in one head works only until the day that person is away.

Design one procedure for each part, from the seam to the done-state, on its own rung, and write it down so anyone in the role can follow it.

MarvinPro · PROCESS · Here is How to Build · Design · Procedure · Discipline 1: A Procedure · Chapter Outcome

MarvinPro | October 2026

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