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Reading the Statement of Work

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In this lesson, you will learn:

  • The parts of a statement of work (SOW)
  • What SNWR-SOW-014 includes and leaves out
  • Which questions to send back before kickoff

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Where a Discovery Implementer Works in ServiceNow. You learned the three places you work in ServiceNow.

1 The Problem: The SOW Decides What You Owe

The SOW is the contract between your company and SNWR. Later, someone will ask for ‘just one more thing’. For example:

  • Arjun may ask for a map of SNWR Email.
  • Someone may ask to scan all 1,400 laptops.
  • Hana may expect you to fix every old CI by hand.

🎯 The problem: The SOW decides what you owe SNWR, and you haven’t read it closely yet.

👉 The fix: Read the SOW line by line before kickoff, and ask about anything unclear.

Table of SOW parts with SNWR examples.
Figure 1. The main parts of SNWR-SOW-014.

2 The parts of an SOW

Key term: Scope

What you’ll deliver. Anything not listed is not included.

Key term: Assumptions

Things everyone believes will be true. If one breaks, the plan may change.

Key term: Client duties

What the client must provide, such as servers and accounts.

Key term: Change request

The formal way to add or change scope, with cost and time agreed.

⚠️ Scope creep: If a request isn’t in the SOW, don’t just say yes. Log it and raise a change request if SNWR wants it.

3 Questions to ask before kickoff

  • Does ‘network devices’ include printers and Wi-Fi access points?
  • Who fixes the old CIs that Discovery can’t match?
  • Is Kubernetes in scope, or only the EKS cluster itself?

Send these to Hana in writing. Keep the answers with the SOW.

4 Project Clear View: How We Implemented It

📍 Situation: You have SNWR-SOW-014 and kickoff is in five days.

🧭 Decision: Read it line by line, and turn every unclear line into a question.

🛠️ Steps we took:

  1. Highlighted the scope, out of scope, deliverables and client duties.
  2. Found three unclear lines and wrote them as questions for Hana.
  3. Noted the assumption that accounts arrive by week 4. You added it to the risks.
  4. Filed the SOW and Hana’s answers in the project folder.

✅ What we verified:

  • Hana answered all three questions in writing: printers are out, SNWR fixes old CIs with your help, only the EKS cluster is in.
  • You can say in one sentence what Clear View does and doesn’t include.

📁 Evidence: SOW review notes and Hana’s written answers. The assumption about accounts becomes A-01 in the RAID log (see Kickoff Call › Risks, Assumptions and Dependencies).

5 Quick recap

  • The SOW says what you owe. Anything not listed is out of scope.
  • Read scope, out of scope, deliverables, client duties, assumptions and acceptance.
  • Turn unclear lines into written questions.
  • New requests go through a change request.

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 Arjun asks for a map of SNWR Email. What do you do? Show answer

Explain it’s out of scope in the SOW, log the request, and suggest a change request if SNWR wants it.

2 What is an assumption in an SOW? Show answer

Something everyone expects to be true, like ‘accounts ready by week 4’. If it breaks, the plan may change.

3 Why ask your questions in writing? Show answer

So the answers are clear and can be checked later.

Nice work! You know what Clear View owes SNWR. 🎉
Next up: Checking Licenses and Subscription Units

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