The following are project artifacts necessary to initiate a project:
- Project Charter
- Project Statement of Work (SOW)
- High-Level Business Case
- Enterprise Environmental Factors
- Organizational Process Assets
Statement of Work
A project statement of work or SOW helps describe (in detail) what will be created by a project. An SOW may be created by the sponsoring or delivering entities and typically makes references to business needs, product scope, and strategic plan. An SOW is usually created prior to project initiation (an ideation or business definition phase) and is part of a set of project artifacts necessary to create a Project Charter.
A business need included in an SOW should describe the reason a project is necessary for an entity: various requirements may need to be addressed such as government mandates, market supply and demand, technological and legal requirements, to name a few. A product scope should describe what a project will help create and how it would align to the business need. Finally, the strategic plan should describe the entity’s strategic vision, goals, and objectives, conveying alignment to the project.
Excerpts from:
How to Initiate a Project and More, Dowdell, 2017