About the Statement of Work (SOW)
Questions to answer
- What needs to be done?
- How should it be done?
- How long should should it take?
Sections
- Confidentiality
- Milestones
- Reports
- Deliverables
- End products
- Timelines
Overview
- What project is about (1-3 sentences)
- Mission
- Vision
- Objectives
- Problems solved
- Value to customers
- How it works
- Broad overview using a real-life situation
- User flow
- Target Audience
- Who & Why
- How demographic relates to the look & feel of app
- Business model brief
- Price
- When customer pays
- How customer pays
Confidentiality Agreement
- Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDAs)
- Drafted by Attorney
User Personas
Business Model
Advertisment
App Pricing
In-App Purchases
Competition
User Experience & Design
- How users benefit from features
- Intuitiveness, engagagement
- User journeys
- Wireframes
- Device-specific variations
- Style guide
- Color scheme
- Fonts
- Brand
- Mockups
- Prototypes (Figma)
- Simulates user experience & workflows
- Animations, video, audio
Features
- Features
- Must-haves (non-negotiable)
- Should-haves (important, not vital)
- Could-haves (nice, but could be left out)
- Will-not-haves (features which are not a priority)
- Pages/Screens
- Actions user is able perform
Information Architecture
- Data models
- Data displayed to users
- Data collected from users
User Flows
Technical
Technical Overview
- Details of solution
- Visuals & graphics
- Examples:
- Charts
- Stacked Bar Chart
- Tree Maps
- Graphics
- Video
- Examples
- Links to existing solutions similar to app
- Charts
- Examples:
Platforms & Tech Stack
- User Platforms supported
- Versions
- Technology Stack
- Back-end / Services
- API
- Front-end / Mobile APp
- Technical Solutions Required
- e.g mobile app, website admin, reports
- New solution or updating existing solution?
Components
- Vendors
- Libraries
Process flow
- Processes outside the app/site
- Other systems
- Flow Chart Diagram
Users, Roles, & Access
Reports
- Details
- Frequency
Support & Maintenence
- Months of support
- Support model
- Dedicated resource
- Fixed committment of time
Timelines
- Length of time estimate per feature (hours)
- Outcome Roadmap
Team
- Skills required
- Roles
- Project Management
- Designer
- Developer
- Testing
Costing
- Total cost
- Development cost (hourly)
- Professional services (e.g. project management, graphic design)
- Maintenance costs
- Additional development requests
- Maintenence contract
Intellectual Property
- App name uniqueness
- App stores
- Domain names
Development Methodology
- Agile - frequent software releases with completed functionality
- Sprints - 2 weeks
Project Management
- Tools
- Meetings
- Iteration Planning (Weekly)
- Task prioritization
- Task estimation
- Standup (every other day)
- What’s been done?
- What should be done next?
- What are the blockers
- Demontration (Weekly)
- Show working software
- Gather feedback
- Retros (Bi-weekly)
- “Do more” / “Do differently” / “Do less” / Issues / Feelings / Actions
- Iteration Planning (Weekly)
Testing
Test Cases
User Experience (UX) Testing
Functional Testing
- Ensure users can use app’s features without issues
- Test conditions
- Feature comparison between platform versions of app
Performance Testing
- App Responsiveness
- Speeds of screens loading
- Battery & Memory utilization
- Network efficiency
- File sizes of App & data
Security Testing
Device & Platform Testing
- App Simulators
- Test on muliple devices
- TestFlight
Deployment
App Store Submission
App Store Release requires:
- App title
- Description
- Category
- Keywords
- Launch Icon
- App Store screenshots
If app requires login, provide Apple with Test User Account
App Store Review
- Time: Days to weeks
Monitoring & Analytics
Performance
- App
- Dependent systems
Mobile Analytics Platforms
Crash reports
User-reported issues
Feature utilization by users
Training
Support
- How end-users are supported
User Feedback
Feedback & Submission process
- In-App Feedback
- User Surveys
Advice
- Describe reports early, so they can be integrated into the system at the best cost
- Establishing a style guide early on as part of your mobile app development process improves the productivity of your mobile app developers. Following a style guide will help keep your app’s look and feel consistent
- Make sure that your app employs consistent fonts, style treatments, color scheme, padding between data, icon design, and navigation
- Security
- Hire outside agencies to perform thorough security testing on their applications
Resources
- https://toucan.com.jm/creating-an-effective-scope-of-work-for-a-mobile-application-or-website/
- https://www.invonto.com/insights/mobile-app-development-process/
- https://madappgang.com/blog/step-by-step-mobile-app-development-process/
- https://www.rocketfarmstudios.com/blog/truly-understand-scope-app-development-project/
Process
- Break down the requirements into a feature list and initial architecture design
- Dev team estimates against each feature
- Convert each feature to technical tasks and estimate the hours.
- Discuss the QA efforts, Project handling time
- Prepare the quote