Professional Documents
Culture Documents
It’s a lot to ask. But if you pull it off, an SOW will ensure you, your
stakeholders, and the outside teams you’re working with all have a clear
idea of what a “successful” project looks like, and how you’re going to get
there.
Section 1: Introduction
Before you get into the project specifics, it’s important to get the highest-
level information down. What is the type of work that is being done? Is it
a service that’s being performed or a product that’s being built? Who are
the parties involved.
The introduction can also cover the types of formal agreements that the
SOW can be used to create later, such as:
How long is the project going to take and what are the phases/milestones?
Time is often one of the more important deciding factors when it comes to
pricing a project, so you’ll want to be clear upfront what expectations are.
Does the project have specific predetermined dates? Will it take place
over a given period of time (like “one 6-month period”). Or is there an end
date that coincides with some other event such as a change in
government regulation (like GDPR) that affects your business model?
In Agile companies, this can often be hard to do. You might be able to
estimate a timeline, but as you’re working iteratively it’s not as simple as
picking dates on the calendar.
Instead, you’ll want to think beyond a fixed scope and try to create
structure to the project while maintaining the flexibility to pivot and adapt.
One way to do this is to create a schedule for the first phase or milestone
and then set aside time to reassess and adapt the SOW once you’ve
completed it.
In every case, however, a SOW should never have an open-ended
project schedule. Rather, if you need to leave it more flexible you should
set a maximum amount of time that can be spent without
approval/notification.
Simply put, is this an on-site or remote project? You can also list if any
regular meetings are going to take place (like a daily Scrum) and when
and where those will take place.
What are the required resources for you and the contractor?
Who’s doing what (both from the contractor and your team)? Do the
contractor’s current resources match up with the project expectations?
And what about you? How many people are you going to need to help
run and support this project? Don’t forget to be realistic and allow for a
decent amount of overhead.
This is something that’s left out of 90% of SOWs but is a valuable piece
to include. An adoption plan is the process for how the deliverables will
be put into place. Whether that’s the migration of your new website to
your old domain or how a feature will be brought into an existing app.
You bought into the value of the project. And while it’s ultimately your
responsibility to lead the adoption of it at your company, why not let the
experts you hired help guide you?
So as you’re writing your SOW, make absolutely sure that it hits all these
must haves:
1. Explicit Details: If it’s not on the SOW, don’t assume it will get done.
This means including assumptions on effort, time, and resources.
2. Visualizations: Wherever possible show what you’re talking about
rather than try to explain it. Visualizations, pictures, and examples go a
long way in explaining your goals and needs.
3. Definitions for any terminology: Again, the golden rule of SOWs is
“thou shalt not assume.” If there are business terms, phrases, or
acronyms in your SOW, make sure they are defined.
4. Time for reviews: A SOW is a plan. But at their best, plans are just
educated guesses. Make sure your project schedule and deliverable
timeline has space in it for reviews, pivots, and unexpected changes in
priorities.
5. Success definitions: Probably the most important aspect of an
effective SOW is both parties being aligned in what success looks like. If
it’s at all unclear what you want to achieve at the end, rewrite it.
There you have it! Whether you’re hiring an agency to help you build a
new app or remodeling your house, this should help you put together a
comprehensive and clear SOW that will keep everyone on track and
accountable.