statementofwork.org
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About

The most disputed document in the world.

Statements of Work governs trillions of dollars of work, but is the least-standardised commercial document in business.

Templates like this mask what people are doing, by confusing us with boilerplate text and yellow fields to complete. This is wrong.

Example of a poorly structured SoW template

For the last ten years running, eight of the most disputed terms are those that are contained within the statement of work.

  1. Price / Charge / Price Changes
  2. Scope and Goals / Specification
  3. Delivery
  4. Invoices / Late Payment
  5. Service Levels
  6. Payment / Payment Options
  7. Responsibilities of the Parties
  8. Amendments / Changes to Contract
  9. Liquidated Damages
  10. Termination
The origin
From a research project to a global standard.

In 2018, I launched the Defining Work Initiative to build a taxonomy of work; to define how work was described.

The initiative brought together procurement leaders, labour market economists, and contract specialists. The result after a near decade of research, funding and feedback is to focus on the most chaotic way of engaging work - statements of work. The result is this official SoW Standard: a single framework for how every Statement of Work should be written, reviewed, and managed.

Jamie Gannaway
Jamie Gannaway
SoW Template Benchmark
Score your Statement of Work against the global standard.

Upload a SoW template. Get a structured report showing exactly what's broken and what to fix first. Powered by AskTim from World Commerce and Contracting.

RSA Workshop, January 2019
The organisations that shaped the standard.

The Royal Society of Arts hosted a cross-sector workshop to validate the framework. Representatives from government, academia, and international institutions stress-tested the 11-section structure.

Defining Work
World Commerce and Contracting
Royal Society of Arts
International Labour Organization
Warwick Institute for Employment Research
London School of Economics
Office for National Statistics
Innovate UK
ISO
University of Warwick
Founding partner
World Commerce and Contracting
The world's largest contract management community.
WCC's research into contract disputes and value erosion provided the empirical foundation for the SoW Standard. Their endorsement signals this framework meets the bar for enterprise procurement globally.
70K+
members globally
40%
of disputes from unclear scope
10%
contract value eroded
Contact
Get in touch

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