What is the Statement of work in project management?
-
sow project management processes include documents and many different documents. No matter what industry it represents: PM documents are constant throughout the entire life cycle of any project.
The working statement is one of the most important PM documents, as it describes everything you need for your project.
What is the Statement of Work - SOW?
The Statement of Work (SOW) is a formal PM document, the purpose of which is to define the entire field of activity of the project and to clarify deliveries, costs and deadlines.
SOW is used in cases where projects involve suppliers and external contributors. This document is usually created as part of a contract. Project managers should pay sufficient attention to make SOW clear to all concerned to avoid disputes involving deliveries, budgets or deadlines.
What should SOW include?
Generally, the work declaration consists of the following elements:
- All the results and milestones of the project.
- Purposes and scope
- Expiration dates
- Individual tasks
- Expected results
- Certain terms, conditions and requirements.
- All the necessary resources for the project (facilities, equipment, control procedures, etc.)
- Costs and payments with installments
The benefits of a statement of work
The statement of work is a detailed description of any project. The important meaning of this document is to share what the project involves with the people who work on it, whether they collaborate or are hired to work on the project. These are the suppliers and contractors.
SOW helps project leaders by providing them with a structure on which their project plans can be built. The document helps to avoid conflicts in the project and keeps everyone involved in the project on the same page and works to keep confusion to a minimum.
How to prepare the statement of work?
Undoubtedly, it is easier to write any document if you have a useful template. Most templates include a glossary of terms, which define what SOW refers to, administration information, etc.
create by your own template. Try to be the specific and clarify the terms used to understand them universally. Define who will do what and at what time the tasks are required. This will help avoid confusion later, when you cannot afford any lack of communication or disputes.
Be sure to see the most important problems in your statement of work with powerful diagrams, graphs, bars or other Gantt tools provided by the smart PM tools. All this will make your SEED more digestible.
After all, make sure that people with authority have signed up for SOW (this is the calendar, milestones and deliveries).
In fact, following these common tips on how to write SOW is not that easy, and you may face some common difficulties:
Complexity. In general, each SOW is unique and can vary significantly depending on the type of work required, the duration and details of the contract.
Risks may face financial, operational, legal or reputational risks of a deficient SOW.
Expertise. It is not so easy to find and hire a qualified writer who understands the operational, financial and contractual requirements of the SOW.
Unclear Address It is important to have a template or rules and standards defined in terms of a good SOW. It will be difficult to prepare without a clear direction.
Keeping the moments at the forefront of your efforts and adhering to the above tips can help ensure optimal project performance. What is your experience writing a working statement? Feel free to share your best practices.