STATEMENT OF WORK (SOW) CHECKLIST
This checklist describes how to create your project Statement of Work (SOW) document and
ensure that you provide sufficient detail to gain the agreement of all the necessary parties to
the scope of work your project requires. Your SOW needs to provide detailed descriptions of
the work, such as:
Detailed requirements of work.
Duration of each work package.
Provide a precise description of each deliverables.
Define what is agreed as acceptable output for each work package
This document is often sent out to potential suppliers when aspects of the project are being
outsourced along with a Request for Proposal (RFP) so that accurate and comprehensive
responses to the RFP are received by your organization.
The appropriate parties, stakeholders or sponsor of your project must sign your SOW
before it can become a formally accepted project document.
INTRODUCTION
As this document is frequently used both internally and externally your SOW document
needs an introduction to ensure that anyone reading it has a full appreciation and
understanding of your project. The description and data supporting your introduction must
paint a clear picture of the project:
Background
Benefits it offers
Business need it satisfies
How it contributes to your organizations strategy (The degree to which this can
be explained will vary according to the level of confidentiality or competitive
advantage your project involves.)
This section of your SOW enables any recipient of this document to have a full appreciation
of the level of importance this project has for your organization.
SCOPE OF WORK
In this section you describe what your objective is and what you want to accomplish from the
work you detail here that is the scope of work. It needs to provide details of exactly what
the following are:
Project deliverables
Work tasks (as defined in Work Requirements section.)
Scope of Project (including assumptions, constraints and exclusions).
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE
This section outlines the precise timeframe for your project. The end date of your project
must be communicated to everyone involved in the project and may be set by legislation,
regulatory standards or have been pre-determined by its significance in your organizations
growth strategy.
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PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE CONTINUED:
This date will have implications in terms of project costs and contractual terms. Any contract
you take out with a third party as part of your project needs to ensure the issue of delays, or
under-performance is properly addressed. This may require penalties for missed deadlines
to be imposed on suppliers.
PLACE OF PERFORMANCE
This section informs the person or organization you will be performing the work where they
will be located whilst they undertake this task or work package. For your project there may
be instances where a contractor must conduct the work at your offices and at other times it
may need to be carried out remotely.
You must also ensure that you detail in this section any specific equipment, workspace or
work practices that you require adherence to when performing the work.
Different industries often have their own practices and you will need to familiarize yourself
with what your organizations usual practice is.
WORK REQUIREMENTS
An essential aspect of the SOW is the detailed description of the tasks that need to be
performed in order to achieve the project, which are outlined in the work requirements
section. This contains as detailed as possible description of the work tasks and /or work
packages that make up the project. Each of these items needs to be completed in a timely
fashion for the project to be successfully completes on time.
SCHEDULE MILESTONES
This section describes and outlines the agreed schedule of project deliverables and all the
project milestones. It is important that these details are as accurate as possible so that any
third party responding to an RFP is as informed as possible.
ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA
For a project to be completed it is essential that a definition of what is acceptable is agreed
at the outset of any project. The exact criteria of what your end user or customer will
accept for each deliverable must defined here and once this document is signed by the
correct parties this becomes the project output. A full description ensure that both parties,
the supplier and the customer, know exactly what is:
Meant by acceptable work
Know the acceptance process
Know which individual has the authority to accept each item of work
OTHER REQUIREMENTS
With many projects there are certain aspects that do not fit into any other section but are an
essential part of ensuring your project is successful. This often includes such aspects as
security clearance for personnel both at locations and for use of certain IT systems and
databases. You will also need to detail when essential maintenance and system downtime
will occur throughout the project so that its impact can be accounted for.
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