A statement of work is a staple of any project, no matter the industry, scale or projected outcomes. Whether it’s a website revamp or a web build starting from scratch, the success of your project is down to how well your objectives, timelines and costings are outlined before jumping in headfirst.

Here, we’ll be covering the need for a statement of work, its importance, our top tips for writing yours with clarity and accuracy, alongside offering our free downloadable template.

Quick navigation

• What is a statement of work?
• Why is a statement of work important?
• How to write a statement of work
• Best practices for writing a statement of work
• Download your free statement of work template

What is a statement of work?

Whatever your website requirements are, an initial statement of work gives a high-level overview of a web project. It should outline goals and objectives, budget, deadlines and timescales, and other relevant information, such as audience, target market and risks. It should also include the personnel responsible for working on and overseeing the project.

A good statement of work should do the following:

• Make clear the objectives of the web project
• Provide an accurate cost estimate
• Highlight the projected timescale of the project and completion date
• Outline any foreseeable issues (risk assessment)
• Identify the key audience and understand why they are visiting your site 

Why is a statement of work important?

A statement of work provides clear, top-level information for a project and its aims. Not only will this reassure clients and other stakeholders that you’ve thought of everything, from timelines to estimates, but it also promotes open communication for everyone involved in the project from the get-go. This should highlight any disagreements or conflicts and keep them at bay, since expectations will be defined before any work begins.

How is a statement of work different from a website requirements document?

While a statement of work focuses on objectives, costs, and time scales, a website requirements document is much more technical. This will include site functionality and capabilities, setting out a roadmap for how your team will handle a web build, from the sitemap to the design and UX. 

How to write a statement of work

Whether you’re working on a large-scale digital UX and CRO project or a simple web build, we’re offering our guidance for writing an accurate, clear and actionable statement of work with the help of our downloadable template.

Project overview and team information

The first section of the document is an opportunity to outline a basic overview of the project and list the key stakeholders involved. In your overview, focus on the following areas to give the developers and designers a useful introduction to your business and what you hope to achieve from the new site:

• An introduction to your company – include a brief history and background, a rundown of your product/service offering, notable achievements, and a breakdown of your employees and departments.
• Explain the problem – and more importantly, how a new web build will help solve it. Perhaps you want to attract more customers? Or make your site more engaging? Whatever the issue, include it here and explain how the project can help.
• A high-level outline of the project’s website requirements – what do you need from your chosen web development team? A completely new site or a couple of pages redesigned? Set out what’s required from a high-level perspective, giving the developers a clear overview.
• A high-level outline of your target audience – while the target audience deserves its own full section in the document, a brief outline will set the tone and help the developers get to grips with your objectives.

Following on from the project overview, it’s a good idea to list the stakeholders involved along with their contact details. Include their name, job title and contact information, as well as any other notes that can help the developers know who to approach with a specific issue.

Here’s an example:

• Louis Blake (Project Manager) – Web Content Director – lb@business.org

Goals and objectives

The next step is to outline your goals and objectives; what do you want from your website? And what specifically do you want the outcomes of the project to be? This is the most important section of your website requirements document, as it communicates to the developers what you want to achieve. It can also help influence the elements and solutions they integrate into the final build, as they will have a clear understanding of your needs.

Think about the achievements you’d like to attain from a web redesign or build. Your goals for the project should be measurable, specific and realistic, and based on quantifiable data from your existing site performance.

Here are a couple of examples of reasonable goals to outline in a website requirements document:

• Achieve X% more monthly visitors
• Increase sales of a particular product by X% amount over the next two years
• Gain 1K new followers on Instagram by X date
• Improve the user experience to increase leads by X%

Any goals you set in the website requirements document must be realistic and measurable. Remember that a web build often brings long-term gains rather than quick wins.

Audience and target market

You understand who your customers, audience and target market are, but external web developers don’t. To ensure objectives are met, outlining who your website is targeting is an essential step in creating an effective website requirements document.

Highlighting your target market is a useful way to get developers on board with what you’re trying to achieve through your project. Whether you’re targeting prospective customers or clients with a brand-new site or are building a standalone portal for recruiting new staff; developers will want to know the intended audience to ensure they meet your requirements and hit the brief.

As well as outlining your target audience, you should also add information about what the website should do for them. Perhaps you want to improve the user journey to encourage sales? Or maybe you want to increase engagement through your blog and newsfeed? Whatever your goals and objectives, they should align with the wants and needs of your target audience.

When building your website requirements document, it may be necessary to include collateral, such as relevant data and statistics, to validate your audience. You can also create detailed customer personas to make sure the developers have as much insight into your customer base as you do.

Phases and milestones

To ensure that large web build projects are realistic and deliverable, it’s often necessary to break them into distinct phases, with specific milestones and deadlines assigned for each. Splitting a web build into phases will help ensure the project stays workable for everyone involved, while giving you opportunities to review, test and refine before moving onto the next phase.

Here is an example of a web build project, split into four key phases:

• Phase 1 – Basic web build: This forms the foundation of the site build, and focuses on refining the design, structure and key site elements
• Phase 2 – Incorporating advanced elements: The next phase focuses on incorporating specific elements, such as e-commerce functionality
• Phase 3 – UX and CRM rollout: This phase focuses on refining the onsite user journey and experience, tweaking individual elements to improve processes and maximise the ROI of your marketing activity.

Not all web builds and redesigns require individual phases, but it’s certainly something to consider if you’re planning a big project.

Budget

Outline your budget for the project in this section, with any constraints listed if appropriate. It’s important to be clear on budgets from the outset, as the amount you’re investing will hold sway over the scope of the project.

If you’re concerned that the project will cost too much, it’s still worth putting your requirements to developers. Often, they may be able to find a more affordable solution that marries with your requirements which you hadn’t considered.

Occasionally, compromises will have to be made to keep the project within your designated budget. Be realistic about your expectations and open-minded to alternative solutions suggested by your developer, as they may be able to come up with a near-as-makes-no-difference approach which helps you save on ongoing project costs.

Exclusions

Include a section outlining any exclusions which the build team should be aware of. This may include things like:

• Content development (copywriting, copy editing, video creation etc.)
• Hosting fees
• Integration with other parts of the site, beyond that which is outlined in the requirements document
• Purchase of stock imagery, visuals, illustrations and photography
• Content entry beyond that which is outlined in the requirements document
• Changes to site functionality or wireframe amends after sign-off from senior stakeholders

Note – it can be useful to caveat any exclusions listed in this section, explaining why they’re not included as part of the project. This is also an opportunity to up-sell additional work which may be required after all phases of the web build are complete.

Deadlines and timescales

This is where you set your preferred deadlines and timescales for the project. You should be realistic here, as web projects can be complicated, with the average job taking anywhere between six weeks to six months to complete, depending on the scope of the work involved.

Set your preferred deadline in your website requirements document, but be prepared to negotiate on it after speaking with your developers. Often, they will be able to provide a more accurate completion date depending on the phases involved in the project, and may decide to launch certain aspects of your site periodically to keep the project moving forward.

Best practices for writing a statement of work

A good quality statement of work is one of the best ways to set your project up for success from start to finish. Our tips leave no stone unturned during the writing process, ensuring stakeholders, clients, and developers can reap the benefits of the document.

Be specific 

Being vague about projected deadlines, objectives, and budgets doesn’t just leave room for confusion – it also suggests to clients and stakeholders that you haven’t refined your plans. Worst case scenario, this could prevent you from securing the buy-in needed to move forward, so it’s always worth including specifics wherever you can.

If you’re unsure of certain aspects, do your best to find the answers internally, or flag these when you’re sharing the statement of work with anybody who might be able to add clarity.  

Set clear expectations

In the same wheelhouse, it’s important to set clear expectations throughout the statement of work. Think about what will be needed from the developers, stakeholders and client, and be sure to clearly outline the expectations for the project from all angles. How many client reviews will be required? What’s the maximum rounds of amends the developers will need to make? When should the team be hitting certain milestones in the project? Take as many factors into consideration before settling on the expectations. 

Align the statement of work with a website requirements document

Once you have your statement of work, a website requirements document should be drafted. While this will delve deeper into the specifics and technicalities of the web build, it should marry up with the proposed phases, consider budget plans and be a realistic ask for those involved in terms of timings and resource.  

Download your free statement of work template

At Banc, our web design and development team create user-centred websites to your exact specification, helping you build a powerful, fully optimised platform that can help drive business growth. Click here for more information on how we can help you with your next web project or call our team today on 0345 459 0558.