Statement of Work

Document Audience: Advisor and design team.
Document Purpose: Explains the what, why and how of a project, before it starts

The Statement of Work (SOW) is the contract between the team and the advisor that describes what the team will do. Therefore it is important that the design team interacts with its advisor when creating the SOW.

Many organizations, including companies and branches of the U.S. government require a SOW as part of the project proposal process. While every SOW will look different, they all share the sections as described below. There is no page limit requirement on your SOW. Make it short (but not too short) and complete.

Background

The introduction to the project. Describes the problem to be solved and the context of the problem. Generally contains a general statement of the project, a specific statement about the problem to be solved, a description of why the project exists and its relation to other projects and a description of how the end result of the project will be used

Scope

Describes what will and won't be done on the project. Does not refer to specific tasks or deliverables.

Tasks

Defines the four to five major tasks that the design team will undertake during the project, and the approach that the team will take on the tasks. Tasks can be stated as a numbered subsections. The purpose of this section is to describe the work plan for the team.

Deliverables

Describes with some specificity the end of project deliverables that will be turned over to the advisor at the end of the project. If the deliverables include documents, the title, contents and purpose of the document is described. If the deliverables include apparatus, the purpose and functional capabilities of the apparatus are described. An artists rendering of how the apparatus is expected to look, even if details of how it works are missing, is always useful.

Tips For Preparing the SOW

• Use simple words and sentences. No jargon.
• Be concise. No gratuitous or extraneous words.
• Use active rather than passive voice.
• Define technical terms.
• Be specific.
• Use figures, diagrams and images to make your point.
• Page numbers, document date, authors' names.
• Very carefully copy edit to eliminate typos.
• Read out loud to yourself to make sure the writing is perfect.

Advisors evaluation of deliverables (PDF)