With so many different businesses and companies popping up left, right, and center, it is necessary to have a know-how of documents like Statement of Work and Project Charter. Both of these are extremely important. Let us dive deeper into what they are and how they differ from one another.
Statement of Work is a type of contractual document. It is drawn up between a customer/buyer and the vendor/contractor responsible for the deliverables of the project. The Statement of Work contains all the aspects of a project within it like the timeline, the deliverables, the activities, etc. It is drawn up before the project begins so that all the preliminary bases are covered and the tasks have been assigned to the right people. This makes the execution of the project a much smoother experience. The Statement of Work provides a highly detailed overview of the scope of the project. Therefore, it makes the lives of project managers much easier, and also ensures that the vendors and stakeholders are on the same page when it comes to the costs and requirements. These days, project management softwares have made drawing up the Statement of Work a simpler process.
Now we will shed some light on the Project Charter, and how it differs from the Statement of Work. Project Charters are also created to set the objectives, deliverables, and scope of projects. It also helps create an understanding between the two parties involved in the project and allows a proper presentation of the project requirements to the stakeholders. With the stakeholders properly identified with the help of the Project Charter, acquiring investments becomes much easier. It hands over the authority to the project managers for the spending of the budget of the project to meet the needs of the client. Unlike the Statement of Work, a Project Charter is not a legally binding document. Moreover, the Statement of Work is part of the inputs that are required to draw up the Project Charter.
Overall, they are quite similar except for a few aspects, as discussed above. However, each document has its own importance and should not be neglected before the initiation of a project.
