Creating an Effective Statement of Work

By Katherine Brown-Hoekstra | Associate Fellow

Once you have an established relationship with a client, they frequently want to use your services for multiple projects. Rather than creating separate contracts for each project, you can sign a General Services Agreement, which provides the framework for the relationship and outlines the expectations for each party, and then create a Statement of Work (SOW) for each project.

Clients like this arrangement because contracts often have to be signed at a higher level than SOWs. Once their upper management and legal department approve your General Service Agreement, the client can generally sign the SOWs for specific projects (at least up to certain cost thresholds).

Components of the SOW

The SOW describes the project’s scope, deliverables, schedule, costs, and assumptions, typically in one to two pages, unless the project is complex. Some clients have a format that they require, but many allow you to structure it in a way that makes sense for the project. In addition, if you did a more detailed proposal for the client, you can use the SOWs to break down the project into phases or tasks, and copy the information from the proposal.

Scope

The scope describes the parameters of the project. Be as specific as possible, but keep it to one paragraph. Be sure to answer the who, what, and why questions.

Deliverables

Create a bulleted list of the deliverables and quantities required. Be specific. If you have a single deliverable, you can incorporate it into the scope statement, but be sure to highlight the word “deliverable.”

Schedule

If the project is complex, you might want to attach a Gantt chart showing the major tasks and dependencies. If it’s a relatively simple project, you can use a table to show the schedule. Since the actual start date depends on when the SOW gets signed, you might want to add wording to that effect. For example, “The project will begin within 2 business days of approval. If necessary, an updated project schedule will be provided when the SOW is approved.”

Sample Schedule Table

When scheduling tasks, remember that the hours required to do the task do not equal the number of days in the schedule. When planning the schedule, make sure you consider holidays, vacations, weekends, interruptions, and so on. Typically, you want to add at least 25% to the actual hours required, more if you need to consider vacations and holidays. For example, if a task takes 16 hours (two 8-hour days), you would want to allow three to five calendar days. It’s always better to finish early than to need more time.

Costs

For complex projects, you will want to attach a detailed spreadsheet and just provide a summary table in the SOW itself. For simple projects, you can insert a table that looks like this:

Sample Cost Table

Always include a statement of how often you will invoice the client and when the invoice is due. For example, “Invoices will be sent every two weeks. Payment is due within 30 days.” If you are basing the SOW on a longer proposal, triple-check that all your numbers match.

For time-and-materials projects, be sure to give a range of hours and costs so that the client knows the minimum and maximum to expect. For fixed-bid projects, you could leave off the Hours column and just list the cost for each task. With fixed-bid projects, carefully define the scope and be very conservative in your estimates because it can be more difficult to get a change order approved. Add at least 25% to whatever you think it will take to do the work. This will help counteract any scope creep, delay, and so on. Also, make sure that you carefully define your assumptions and risk management, which will help if you do need to request a change order.

Assumptions

Whenever you estimate a project, you have to make assumptions based on your current knowledge of the project. Document these assumptions in the SOW, along with consequences if the assumption is not met. This section is critical for projects with fuzzy parameters because these assumptions provide an argument for a change order if the expected parameters change.

Create the assumptions by thinking of all the ways that external issues could affect your ability to get the project done. Then, write the assumption in the affirmative, present tense.

Sample Assumptions

• SMEs are available for reviews and return comments by due date. There will be a day-for-day slip in the schedule if comments are not returned on time.
• The scope includes two reviews. Additional reviews will be priced at $ /hour.
• Specifications documents are available for review.
• Team has sufficient access to prototypes of the product being documented.
• Products and content are localized into FIGS, Japanese, both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Thai.
• Templates are well-internationalized and free of bugs. Modifying templates is outside the scope of this project. Template modifications will cost $ /hr.
• For the terminology management task, designers, in-country reviewers, and the localization QA person are available for reviews.

Contact Information and Signature

Use your corporate letterhead when you write the SOW, and include your personal contact information. Make sure you provide a dates and signature line for the client. If you know who will sign the SOW, put their name, job title, and the company name under the signature line.

Conclusion

A Statement of Work is a convenient way to document a project’s scope, deliverables, schedule, costs, and assumptions for a client. You can usually write it in plain language, rather than in the legalese found in the General Services Agreement. In addition, the Statement of Work helps to ensure that both you and the client understand the parameters and assumptions for the particular project.

Katherine (Kit) Brown-Hoekstra is an Associate Fellow for STC and the Principal for Comgenesis, LLC, which provides consulting services and training to clients on internationalizing and improving the usability of their documentation, developing a coherent documentation strategy and content model, as well as more traditional technical writing and editing services.