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Scope of Work
A Scope of Work (SOW) is a document outlining the details of a project between client and vendor.
What is a Scope of Work (SOW)?
A Scope of Work (SOW) is a document outlining the details of a project between client and vendor. Typically, the SOW includes a detailed description of the proposed project along with key data points such as project deliverables, project budget, and project timelines.
What is an example of a Scope of Work (SOW)?
Every day in the world of business, documents known as a Scope of Work (or statement of work) are created, reviewed, approved, and amended to help reach agreements between disparate parties.
Different from a Master Services Agreement or an Insertion Order, a Scope of Work is prepared and agreed upon to provide context and requirements for a specific project.
As an example, in the context of a client-agency relationship between an advertising agency and a client such as Best Buy, the agency has agreed to provide a certain set or scope of services to the client for a specific period of time.
Within the context of this agreement — which is typically encapsulated by a Master Services Agreement — the client and the agency work together to outline timelines, budgets, and goals for specific projects within the context of their retainer. As an example, the client may agree to work exclusively with the agency to produce advertising creative, including but not limited to video, photography, banner ads, and more.
When the time comes to develop a suite of banner ads to support the launch of a new product at Best Buy, as an example, the agency may create a Scope of Work to outline the high level goals of the project, the timeline for kick off and final delivery, the specific resources needed to accomplish the project, the billing schedule for invoicing, and the specific deliverables, which may include various sizes, creative iterations, and more.
Known as a Scope of Work, this plan is provided to the client for review and approval. Should the client sign off on the Scope of Work, as proposed by their creative agency, the client would begin as set forth in the Scope of Work document.
At any point during the project, should additional resources or deliverables be needed, an addendum or Change Order can be applied to the original Scope of Work, whereby the terms of the engagement remain the same (the scope), but with new work accreting as needed. A term called "scope creep" is often used to describe "asks" that go beyond the original "scope of work” and would justify an amendment or change order.
As you can see, the typical process by which businesses engage follows two general agreements: The Master Services Agreement, which outlines general business level agreements, and then the Scope of Work, which outlines the specific project or projects that the client and the agency will work on together throughout their engagement.
As you can imagine, within the context of a client-agency relationship, it is not uncommon for many projects to be active at once. In this case, a specific Scope of Work would be created for each project.
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