Over the last decade operational risk has been managed by the provision of an ever-increasing number and complexity of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Policy Notes, and the gradual removal or erosion of 'operational discretion' which made the commander's decision making progressively easier by pushing sequentially more and more of their decisions into the 'procedural' decision making category. This served organisations reasonably well until the shortfalls and limitations in their policy and procedure documents became known and so exposed individuals and organisations to scrutiny and possible censure. The historic use of those SOPs allowed for knowledge checking, and in some instances crude or simply applied tools such as E-Learning were established to teach and check acquisition or maintenance of the required knowledge, providing a semblance of organisational reassurance.
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