Knowledge of project management is essential for successful projects now and in the future. It is, therefore, essential for us to become proficient in project management. Particularly to understand project risks.
For those involved in the end-to-end process of delivering the project it is important to understand the detailed planning and deployment management before writing Statement of Work. In order to deliver a comprehensive SoW for the chosen solution we need to employ a number of fundamental steps:
- defining objectives,
- detailed requirements,
- success criteria,
- measurable benefits,
- scope definition, and
- acceptance criteria.
This requires exploration of goals and detailed planning. For many projects, this remains a value creating process.
SoW is a narrative description of deliverables of the project. It supports the communication and exchange of information to establish common understanding of the project details, complexities and objectives alignment. People tend to employe short-cuts in information processing, therefore the first human mental search process is generally incomplete. The clear statement allows to avoid biases and perspective limitations.
Statement of Work outlines what goes into the project in as much detail as possible. It is usually an appendix to the terms and conditions of the contract that should be taken seriously. It is a high-level document that defines the project by presenting is mission, deliverables and success criteria.
Often the SoW is not well defined or fully understood creating a serious risk to the successful project realisation.
The APM Body of Knowledge, defines Statement of work as "an annex to the main body of a contract that defines the detail of deliverables, timescales and management procedures relevant to the contract". Therefore, SoW can define the project scope to include the overall requirements for the project. It forms the basis for allocating work, budget and schedule requirements. It has a significant impact on the Earned Value Management (EVM) as it provides objective measure of performance against the original project requirements.
What is project success?
Project success is the satisfaction of stakeholder needs and measured by the success criteria agreed. Benefits can be quantifiable and measurable. They result from completion deliverables that are accepted and perceived as positive by stakeholders. They have a tangible value, ideally expressed in monetary terms to justify the investment.
Benefits management involves identifying and agreeing the benefits and how they will be measured, managed and monitored throughout the project life cycle. Therefore, a consistent approach to benefits identification helps to assess the collective impact on business performance across the organisation.
Mapping, of strategically aligned benefits ensures that the investment decisions and the project scope are driven by the contribution to the benefits to achieving the operational, organisational and strategic objectives. Ir is imperative for the project manager to understand the definition of success before writing the Statement of Work.
Understand the requirements
The standalone project objectives generally relate to the business strategy defined by the investing organisation. Therefore, we must ensure, that there is a clear linkage between project benefits, objectives and requirements before writhing SoW. The requirements shall be clear, unambiguous and expressed as simply as possible. Detailing requirements together with measures enables acceptance of deliverables during transition to users.
Logically, the definition of requirements leads to design of test and evaluation criteria to determine acceptability that is included in the Statement of Work. The project team must ensure that essential requirements are understood as an input to the work to select the optimal solution and then define the scope of work to be delivered with the acceptance criteria.
Workable solution
A key objective of the project plan included in the SoW is to identify the optimal solution to satisfy the agreed project requirements. This involves creative and lateral thinking. It is important to maintain a broad selection of options at the early stages of project initiation and to explore the fit of each option with benefits, success criteria, objectives and requirements.
Depending on the project the options might be purely technical (process, material, software), social (people, interactions, needs), managerial (governance) or transitional (change management).
Once workable options have been identified, they can be prioritised and detailed in the SoW. There is a need for early analysis of options and the selection of preferred solution with scope. Following the investment (best value for money) decision the preferred solution is confirmed.
The translation of requirements
In SoW Scope refers to the totality of the outputs, outcomes, benefits and the work required to produce them. It supports the chosen option and the investment appraisal. We must be clear about the boundaries and interfaces with other projects. This is critical to avoid conflicts and omission of work within a programs in the organisation.
Quality planning
Quality planning takes the defined scope and specifies the criteria to be used to validate that the outputs are fit for purpose and acceptable. The quality plan sets out the desired attributes of work in scope and how these are to be assessed. set acceptance criteria provide guidance to the team about the requirements and essential conditions for the deliverable.
The quality plan is agreed with the investment organisation as a key part of the project management plan.
Writing Statement of Work
A clear project Statement of work creates clear understanding of Success criteria, Control of Requirements, defining the Solution and Quality criteria to improve customer satisfaction.
Statement of work includes:
Introduction. Summarise the work to be performed. This section introduces key stakeholders and briefly defines the project and work to be completed.
Project objectives and purpose. It should also the Vision of the project. This section outlines what is expected to be delivered, what is the goal and what benefits the project brings. We also need to make list of each requirement.
Scope of work explains all the work to be done. This is a designated section for putting down what work needs to be completed in the project, how it will be executed, and how much time the project will take. General steps and process details should all be specified here.
Place and time of execution. Most Statement of Work documents use this section to identify where the project will take place.
Milestones. The interim events for measuring progress.
Tasks. Break down of steps outlined in your scope of work segment into detailed tasks. This needs to be very specific.
Schedule. The SoW also needs to include the project deadline. List out the deliverables for each phase of your project and when they are due. It is important to outline the resources needed to ensure the delivery is achieved within the agreed timeframe.
Quality control and expected outcomes. Defines the criteria by which the project will be considered successful at various stages of it's life-cycle.
Special terms, conditions and requirements. Like any other agreement, we need to include the terms on how we are going to be compensated on the work we are doing. Set the clear terms of payment and due dates. This allows to address any part of the project that does not fit into the above categories: how the deliverables will be accepted, who is in charge of reviewing and signing off on the deliverables, post-project support, security measures or restrictions, etc.
Closure.
SoWs are unique to each contract and can vary significantly depending upon the type of work required, the duration and the contract mechanism being established. They are usually the first formal documentation so it's important that they are well done and make a good impression.
Getting started on SoW can be intimidating. Above all, we want to ensure that we produce a clear, high-quality piece of documentation that isn't missing any key elements.
A good start would be to develop it collaboratively. The best SoWs are developed together with the client and the project team.
It is also helpful to use a comprehensive templates designed specifically for your product or service. A few pages is ideal where possible. We must not forget to include a high level of description and details so the work to be done is understood. A large number of people might be reading the SoW so the language should be concise so variety of people from different industries would be able to understand.
Last but not least, we must ensure that the finished version is immaculate. It is part of a contract and should be free of any errors and mistakes.
Bibliography:
Association of Project Management, 2019, APM Glossary" APM Body of Knowledge 5th, 6th and 7th edition with other well-known APM publications, including Planning, Scheduling, Monitoring and Control, Project Risk Analysis and Management 2nd edition (PRAM guide) and Starting Out in Project Management 3rd edition.
Ayers J., 2019, "The key to successful project management", Association for Project Management
Biazzin C, 2016, "Super Formula Case for Project Management Courses: Improving the Project Statement of Work", Operations Management Research
The Chartered Body for the Project Profession, 2020, "APM Body of Knowledge", 7th Edition, pp. 154-162
Viter I., 2020, "How to Make a Complete Statement of Work?", Forecast, accessed from https://www.forecast.app/blog/10-steps-to-make-a-complete-statement-of-work (accessed on 30/03/2022)
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