SOW Writing Training | Statement of Work Training

SOW Writing Training, Statement of Work Training

SOW Writing Training is a 2-day course where participants learn about effecitve SOW writing through group activities, templates, and a hands-on workshop.

A Statement of Work (SOW) is important because it ensures there is no misunderstanding between vendors and their clients when they come on board a project.

An effective SOW also protects the client from their vendors suddenly claiming they were enlisted for different deliverables, a different project schedule, or other details than were originally agreed to.

A good statement of work contains many details, structured and logically relevant. This helps the negotiations to run more productive and faster. A well-organized statement of work helps you to save time (which, of course, is an important cost saving measure).

However, it’s important for organizations to understand that a SoW is not legally binding. As such, it is often accompanied by a formal legal contract that outlines the specifics of an agreement such as the parties, terms, reporting requirements, payment obligations, etc.

When a SoW is not accompanied by a legally binding contract, it is crucial for both parties to know and understand each other well so the transaction can be completed smoothly.

The SOW begins with the Scope Statement that describes the completed project. The SOW then goes on to provide detailed information on the deliverables. It will consist of several types of information when applicable:

• Purpose and scope of work – the reason why you are taking up this project and the resources involved to get the work done.
• Deliverables and due dates
• Location of work – the physical location where the work will take place. This may not be necessary, but if the work is to be performed offshore, for example, it would be necessary to include this information.
• Tasks that make up the deliverables
• Task responsibility distribution – who each task is assigned to
• Deliverables timeline – indicates when the work will begin, and when the team or organization must complete the task. Here, the project manager would consider specifying the maximum number of hours the organization is willing to pay for.
• Criteria for acceptance – using objective criteria, the buyer can determine whether the product or service provided to them is acceptable.
• Payment schedule – includes a breakdown of costs and payment deadlines that must be met

SOW Writing Training, Statement of Work Training Seminar by Tonex

SOW writing training provides you with concepts, tools, approaches, and configuration of Statement of Work (SOW). Statement of Work is the basis of the correlation between buyers and sellers.

The sale of goods and services can only be implemented by competently generating the SOW document. SOW writing training is intended for hands-on usage by requirements developers, in-house SOW team people and other project managers and contract managers whose roles contained appropriately determining needs and converting them into quality contracts. It delivers the knowledge you need, comprising of fundamental contract management notions, to reliably develop and administer effective SOWs.

SOW writing training applies challenging team practices and scenarios that will take you across the process of building a strong statement of work. You will comprehend how the Master Agreement is related with the SOW. Then, you will become familiar with the evolution of the SOW, (needs, objectives, requirements) and, varying with your situation, how a Statement of Object (SOO) and/or a SOW outline should be prepared in the SOW. You also will learn about the poorly written and designed SOWs and/or parts of SOWs and re-writing them applying best practices and standards.

Participants of this intensive, hands-on seminar will exercise to write each section of the SOW. Participants will also examine SOWs from a contractor’s view, the questions a contractor might have upon reading the SOW, and the inconsistencies that cause confusion. You will learn best practices for making sure your SOWs communicate to your intended readers in order to accomplish the best value for your acquisitions.

Learn About:

• Acquisition Planning
• Market Research
• Performance Documents
• Developing Statements of Work
• Importance of Language
• Developing Evaluation Factors
• Quality Assurance Surveillance Plans
• Performance Incentives
• The value of SOW
• The application of SOW
• SOW construction
• Writing SOW
• Contract SOW vs a project SOW
• Developing your own SOW style

SOW writing training is a hands-on course including group activities, templates, and hands-on workshop.

Audience

SOW writing training is a 2-day course designed for:

• Federal employees
• Contractors
• PMP-certified project managers
• IT project managers
• Project coordinators
• Project analysts
• Project leaders
• Senior project managers
• Team leaders
• Product managers
• Program managers
• Project sponsors
• Project team members
• All individuals who need to write a SOW

Learning Objectives

Upon the completion of SOW writing training, the attendees can:

• Recognize the usual mistakes of incorrect, confusing or mis-constructed narratives
• Use simple approaches and “best practice” methods that will secure high quality in their SOW documents
• Identify what a “breach of contract” requires
• Help others to evaluate SOWs for quality, clarity and unity
• Use data on how the courts historically understand arguments in contract language based on long-standing rules
• Identify the actual requirements
• Choose a proper SOW type that fulfills the government requirements
• Explain all features of the work to be performed in a way that will be comprehended
• Write a clear SOW that will lead to responsive, competitive proposals
• Assess the effect of a SOW on accomplishing best value across the acquisition process

Course Outline

Overview of SOW Writing

• The contract fundamental components
• Contract law concepts
• Categories of contracts
• Contracts potential risks
• Managing conflicts
• Contract guidelines
• The goal of the SOW
• Master contracts
• Master agreement usual components
• Master Agreement vs SOW
• Differences in the view of the SOW between buyer and seller
• SOW value
• Relationship of the SOW to the solicitation
• SOW process and results
• Requirement description

The SOW Background

• Identifying the needs from expectations
• Empowering objectives into requirements
• Background of the SOW
• The Statement of Objective purpose
• How the WBS (Work Breakout Structure) relates to requirements and the SOW
• Getting ready for a SOW
• SOW glossary
• The SOW approaches
• Goals in writing a SOW
• How does a well-written SOW look like?

Describing the Work

• Simplifying the work
• Determining the necessary skills and resources
• Analyzing risk
• Identifying deliverables

Generating the Narrative

• The questions to begin a SOW
• Purpose of the SOW template
• Issues related with poor writing and bad construction
• Principals for writing the SOW
• Quality Assurance across the Use of the Master list
• The logic behind the SOW master list
• The usage of the master list by the SOW writer

Signed SOW Modifications

• Managing the contract
• Monitoring modifications to the SOW
• Positive SOW changes
• Keeping issues and disputes under control
• SOW tools
• SOW outline
• SOW template
• General list for the SOW writer

Developing the SOW

• Various forms of SOW
• SOW style
• Be to the point and clear
• Writing tips

Dealing with Your SOW

• SOW Effectiveness
• How to react to the contractor questions
• Managing the contract through the SOW

Tonex Case Study and Templates Samples

• How to Write a Statement of Work
• Human Capital
• Operations Support
• Organizational Support
• Technology Solutions
• Statements of Work Review

SOW Writing Workshop

• Working with Tonex SOW Templates
• How to Write a Statement of Work
• What Makes Up a Statement of Work?
• Introduction
• Scope of Work
• Overview of Tasks
• Milestones
• Deliverables
• Schedule
• Standards and Testing (Verification and Validation)
• Define Success Criteria
• Success KPIs
• Requirements
• Payments/Cost
• Others
• Closure

SOW Writing Training