SWGDOC operates using sub-groups, called committees, with a population of generally five to seven individuals in each. These committees draft new, or update existing, operating procedures for specific sub-disciplines within the forensic document field.  Once a committee completes a draft document it is vetted by the entire SWGDOC membership.  After a draft is approved by the SWGDOC members it is made public for any and all persons to view and comment.  After a draft has been vetted by the public it becomes a published SWGDOC standard. Before separating itself from ASTM, SWGDOC wrote and/or updated twenty standards published through that organization.

The field of Forensic Document Examination was one of the first to receive repeated challenges in court.  As a result, our discipline was motivated to begin writing and publishing sub-discipline specific operating procedures for use during forensic document examinations.