Bring Your Mobile App Development Ideas to Life With SOW
Right from conceptualization of your project to design, you need a deep and precise understanding of the project you are ideating to work on and the requirements that have to be met. These ideations must be presented in such a way that it promptly presents your envisioned app and creating a Scope of Work (SOW) document makes it a cakewalk. It makes sure everything in a development project runs smoothly and saves you from failures and financial losses.
When the requirement management is successfully handled, the rest will fall in the right place automatically. Let’s see what SOWs are and how to write the specifications so that it turns your project into a productive asset for your business.
What is a Scope of Work?
A Scope of Work is the breakdown of a project into particular modules and specifications with
Timelines. It typically gives answers for the following questions,
- What needs to be done?
- How does it need to be done?
- How long should it take?
The more specific a scope of work document is, the less time it is needed to develop the application. Let us get hold of more about SOWs and what are the must-add elements that have to be specified while writing an SOW.
Approach to be Followed While Writing the SOW
The idea is to keep it simple. No matter how lengthy or time-consuming the task may be, all you need to do is to keep your specification and understanding in an order of reflections from simple to complex ones so that it will be easy to get through the project. Here are the steps to be approached to create a scope of work.
A) Idea description
This should be about the product you are striving to develop. Specify major features that are to be included in your app, the tech stack you are going to use, tools to implement your ideations, and others.
B) Basic navigation patterns
Make a role-based analysis and figure out what are the possible operations each role can perform on each screen. Note down the alternatives and exceptions that might affect the operations. List out both user action and system response individually.
C) Market research
Here, market research denotes not about your competitors but about the platforms they make use of, how popular their products are and what is the key reason, who are their target audience, how they attract huge masses, etc.,
D) App features
List down each and every feature that has to be integrated with your application. Make a checklist with a “MoSCoW” approach i.e., put them under categories such as must, should, could, and won’t. Now you can easily pick the ones that fully satisfy your business goals.
Functional specification
This involves deciding on the functional requirements of your project. Form a characteristic table stating the user roles, their functions, system features connecting with them, and others. In the end, you’ll get a solid feature table with which you can work on your wireframes and design.
Wireframes
Wireframe your app with the aforementioned data by following the common UI structuring rules. Check on the platform-specific guidelines you have to look for before starting off.
Sections to be Included to Create an Effective SOW For Your Mobile App
At Pyramidion, we excel at creating industry-best mobile applications and the sole reason behind the same is that we concentrate on the scope of work and specify every nook and corner of the project in our documentation. This diamond-cut documentation process helps us gain common grounds with our clients, thus, paving the way for a more polished and quality end product. Having said that, let us now get to know what are the four important sections that are must-adds for a scope of work document.
Section 1: Confidentiality Agreement
This section is basically to nail down your app ideas to submit the details to the company building your application. It is also better not to be over-intricated about your idea specification since it is being handed over to another individual or company. But we also know that it is necessary to have our scope of work as detailed as possible. So, you can bring in your SOW with confidentiality agreements or non-disclosure agreements which allows you to pen down your solution ideas and strategies in an elaborate manner.
Section 2: Project Overview
As in the name, this section is to give an overview of your project. Your project overview should be typically framed with the following details,
2.1 What is your project about?
The key reason for your project development. For instance, if you are building an application for an online taxi business, then the major reason for developing the application is for online taxi service. Similarly, your project’s key reason must be specified.
2.2 How does it work?
The working of the application based on different user-ends, the operations they are allowed to perform, available options, toggles and menus, and a lot more. Make sure you give a broad review rather than explaining them deeply.
2.3 Who are the target audiences?
This information depends on the app you are about to build and how well those audiences may connect with the application.
2.4 What is the business model to be used?
The main focus here must be “what needs to be built”. Specify a model that well-suits the needs of your application. Give a brief on why that particular business model is the best choice and how well it enhances your application.
Section 3: Technical Tools and Solutions
In this section, you can attach minute technical details of your project via visual components such as Charts, Flowcharts, Graphics, Videos, Instances, and many more. Here are the other characteristics you must include while writing this section.
- Required technical solutions
- Specification of solution preference and existing solution interaction
- App/website accessibility
- Process flow
- Report generation integrated to admin panel
- Maintenance and support services needed
- Estimated duration and completion time of the project
Section 4: Time, Cost and Contracts
The final set of details to be imparted includes timelines, cost, and other agreements to be put in place.
4.1 Detailed timeline
The project is broken into several modules and tasks and allocated with a specific timeline considering the complexity of the module. This is very important information since the timeline is directly related to the development cost.
4.2 Cost information
Development costs, professional costs, and maintenance costs are combined to give the total cost for the project. These are the cost types in general. There might be extra charges according to the complexity and additional features to be included as add-ons.
4.3 Agreements to be included
After the SOW is shared between the parties, there will be discussions regarding the specified scenarios, timelines, and costs. After settling down on common grounds, both of you will mutually sign an agreement that states the terms and conditions specified in this section.
Wrap Up
To avoid unnecessary complexities and higher expenses in the later stages of the app development, it is better to make an early investment in Scope of Work. If you are looking for a potential mobile app development partner offering a project kick-start with an efficient SOW, Pyramidion has its doors open for you and you can connect with our professional team anytime to discuss your project ideas.
