Widely considered the “heart of the contract,” the Statement of Work (SOW) is the foundation of the relationship between buyers and sellers. The purchase or sale of products and services can only be executed by skillfully creating the SOW document. This course is designed for practical use by requirements developers, in-house SOW team members and other project managers and contract managers whose responsibilities include properly identifying needs and turning them into quality contracts. It provides the information you need, including basic contract management concepts, to consistently develop and administer effective SOWs.

This course employs challenging team exercises and case studies that will take you through the process of building a solid statement of work. First you will start out understanding the relationship between the Master Agreement and the SOW. Next comes the evolution of the SOW, (needs, objectives, requirements) and, depending on your situation, how a Statement of Object (SOO) and/or a SOW outline is needed in preparation of the SOW. This is followed by breaking down poorly written and constructed SOWs and/or sections of SOWs and re-writing them using best practices and guidelines. After that, the team will build a multi-page SOW from scratch. Finally you’ll learn what needs to occur in regards to the SOW when there is change in the project that doesn’t meet the SOW.

The skills learned in this practical course can be immediately applied by anyone involved in writing, negotiating, awarding or administering SOWs.

• The Basics of SOWs in Business
• The essential elements of a contract
• Basic concepts in contract law
• Categories and types of contracts
• Uncertainty and risk in contracting
• Conflicts in contracts
• Contract interpretation guidelines
• The Purpose of the SOW
• Purpose of the Master Agreements
• Common elements of a Master Agreement
• Relationship between Master Agreement and SOW
• Buyer versus seller perspective of the SOW
• Importance of the SOW
• The Evolution of the SOW
• Determining needs from wants
• Leveraging objectives into requirements
• Evolution of the SOW
• Purpose of the Statement of Objective
• The work breakdown structure (WBS) relationship to requirements and the SOW
• Preparing for an SOW
• SOW outline
• Different approaches to SOWs
• Goals in writing an SOW
• A well-written SOW
• Creating the Narrative
• Initial questions for an SOW
• Purpose of the SOW template
• Problems associated with poor writing and poor construction
• Guidelines for writing the SOW
• Quality Assurance through the Use of the Master Checklist
• The purpose/rationale of the SOW master checklist
• The use of the master checklist by the SOW writer
• Changes to a Signed SOW
• Administering the contract
• Managing changes to the SOW
• Constructive SOW changes
• How to keep issues and disputes at bay
• Standard Tools Used for Preparing Quality SOWs
• Standard outline for a typical SOW
• SOW template
• Checklist for identifying typical problems or poor or complicates narratives
• Master checklist for the SOW writer