Statement of work

A statement of work (SOW) is a document routinely employed in the field of project management. It is the narrative description of a project's work requirement. It defines project-specific activities, deliverables and timelines for a vendor providing services to the client. The SOW typically also includes detailed requirements and pricing, with standard regulatory and governance terms and conditions. It is often an important accompaniment to a master service agreement or request for proposal (RFP). Many formats and styles of statement of work document templates have been specialized for the hardware or software solutions described in the request for proposal. Many companies create their own customized version of SOWs that are specialized or generalized to accommodate typical requests and proposals they receive. However, it is usually informed by the goals of the top management as well as input from the customer and/or user groups. Note that in many cases the statement of work is a binding contract. Master service agreements or consultant/training service agreements postpone certain work-specific contractual components that are addressed in individual statements of work. The master service agreement serves as a master contract governing the terms over potentially multiple SOWs. Sometimes it refers to scope of work. For instance, if a project is done on contract, the scope statement included as part of it can be used as the SOW since it also outlines the work of the project in clear and concise terms. A statement of work typically addresses these subjects. Purpose: Why are we doing this project? A purpose statement attempts to answer this. Scope of work: This describes the work to be done and specifies the hardware and software involved. The definition of scope becomes the scope statement. Location of work: This describes where the work is to be performed, including the location of hardware and software and where people will meet to do the work.