How, Who and When Document
Posted on September 20th, 2009 by Paul McArdle – 1 CommentThis commentary was initially included in a lengthy book review post about the book “Tale of Two Systems”. Given I will be referring to these two documents on an ongoing basis, I have shifted the commentary to this separate page.
In the book, the 2nd key document is called the “Statement of Work” (SOW).
This, along with the “Concept Document” are the two key documents referenced in the book. I agree there should only be two!
According to the book (p8) this “laid out the ‘how’, ‘who’ and ‘when’”.
The author notes that this was developed concurrently with the iterative development of the Concept (i.e. “What and Why) Document.
In my view, it is important that this was a separate document, as these types of details (whilst needed up-front) should not pad out a business case.
As a business owner, what I need is to know that the SOW exists and to have trust in the people who have developed the SOW – I do not necessarily need to read the details.
For our company, moving forward, we’ll place particular emphasis on conversations, and documentation, that answer together the:
HOW, WHO and WHEN
[...] As I have noted before, all of our projects are starting with the focus on a “What and Why” conversation before detailed consideration of “How, Who and When”. [...]