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Write or Revise a Directive
Listed below are the different Directives categories. If these categories are not applicable, please see "Alternatives to Writing a Directive".
Policies are established through the Secretary of Energy's office, and describe the Secretary's philosophies and fundamental values. Policies do not contain requirements, however, Orders, Manuals, and Notices flow from Policies and must be consistent with them.
Orders establish management objectives, requirements and assignment of responsibilities for DOE Federal employees. The requirements within an Order must be unique to DOE only and must avoid duplicating information from other directives or any existing legal source. The responsibilities in an Order must cross DOE organizational lines. Orders tell what requirements are needed to perform a job or what requirements are needed in a specific subject area matter. They may also establish intended requirements for contractors, in the form of a contractor's requirements document (CRD), which is attached to an Order, Notice or Manual.
Notices are similar to Orders. However, Notices are issued for immediate or short-term use and expire no later than 1 year from issuance. There are two types of Notices. The first type is generated because of an unexpected, serious occurrence or situation requiring prompt action, is expedited through the directives process, and expires after 1 year. Notices of this nature must be converted to or incorporated into an Order or Manual within 1 year of the effective date of the Notice. An extension may be granted through issuance of another Notice provided that work on converting the Notice to a draft Order or Manual is in progress or provided that the Notice is being converted to a rule. The second type is used to communicate general information throughout the Department and may reference requirements from an existing directive. Notices of this nature are not coordinated but are issued for immediate or short term use and expire no later than 1 year from issuance.
Manuals may supplement other directives, laws, or regulations, by providing more instructions or details on how the provisions of those documents must be performed. Manuals identify procedural requirements in more detail than Orders for DOE Federal employees and intended requirements for contractors, which must be in the form of a CRD attached to the Manual.
Guides provide nonmandatory, supplemental information about acceptable methods for implementing requirements, including lessons learned, suggested practices, instructions, and suggested performance measures. Guides must not impose requirements but may quote requirements if the sources are adequately cited. Alternate methods may be used if it can be demonstrated that they provide an equivalent or better level of performance.
Modifying a Directive
Directives can be modified as follows:
- Revisions are substantive changes that significantly affect, increase, or decrease the directives requirements and responsibilities. Revisions should wait until at least 3 months after the directive has been approved unless the proposed revisions relate to safety, health, or security. (Revisions occur when 25% or more of the directive is changed.)
- Page Changes are changes that affect a minor part of the directive, and may have substantive changes to requirements and/or responsibilities. (Page changes occur when 24% of less of the directive is changed.)
- Erratas are cover sheets placed on directives that indicate corrections of omissions or typographical errors. Erratas are used by the Office of Information Resources and approval is not required.
Directives Templates
Contact LaVerne Fuller at 202-586-1996 or Gail Cephas at 202-586-1049 for the following templates.
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