What is SOW for Mobile App
The Scope of Work (SOW) for a mobile app is a document that gives an overview of the app with business and technical requirements. It is used to communicate the scope of the project to internal teams or external vendors. This is a baseline document used by the app developers to give an estimate of the cost.
An Scope of work for a mobile app should be created by the person or team of people who wants to get a mobile app built for their idea, or product development. It is a document that is continuously improved during the app development or after the launch of the app. An Scope of work for a mobile app should have the following parts:
Section 1: Create a Confidentiality Agreement
Since you will be sharing your idea with external vendors or internal teams, you should make sure you cover your idea with a confidentiality agreement. You can have a generic confidentiality statement to any reader of the document, or you can create a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA). You can send the NDA to all the recipients of the SOWs and have them sign it before you share the Scope of work document.
Section 2: Overview
The Overview section should contain a high-level overview of the problem, how your app can solve the problem, who the targeted audience is, how you would monetize the app and who are the primary stakeholders.
A. What is the problem
You should define the problem that you want to solve with the mobile app.
B. Proposed solution
In this section, you should define how your proposed mobile app will solve the problem. You can define if you are building an iPhone App or Android App. You can also describe some core features of the app that would allow you to solve the problem.
C. Target Audience
You should define who the targeted audience is for the app. Are they business customers or consumers? You should define the demography of your customers: Region, age range, gender, and interests.
D. Stakeholders
You can define various stakeholders for your app project. This can include sponsors, product owners, managers, and investors.
E. Brief Business Model
You should define your business model for the app. You can define your monetization strategy, how much revenue you want to generate in the first year of launch and what would be your associated cost.
Section 3: Technical Requirements
This is the main section of your Scope of work document. This is where you will define the details of the solution. This part helps the vendor estimate the cost of app development. You can be as detailed as you like
A. List all the components you need
You should list all the components you need for your app development. Do you need UIUX Design, iPhone App, Android App, Backend Server, and Web Admin? You should list all the components.
B. List all the users
You should list all the users of the app. For example, you may have a customer user on the mobile app and an admin user on the web admin panel. You should define all the users of the system.
C. List all the high-level features
You should create a list of high-level features you need for mobile apps, backend servers, and admin panels. This is the most important section and you may want to cover all aspects of your app requirements. You can write a list of required features and functions, technology consideration, a method for building an app (native or cross-platform), support for several platforms, and third-party integrations (connecting the app with SMS gateway, payment gateway, an external device to collect data). Describe if you want to view analytics and app usage (user activity, sessions, userbase).
D. List the process for App Development
You should state what type of software development life cycle (SDLC) you want to follow for your app development project. If you are following Agile, you should state how long of a Sprint you are looking for. If you are following a waterfall, you should state your milestones.
E. What types of support do you need?
Every project needs support from the technical team, you need to describe what level of support and maintenance you need initially. Also, you need to mention if you require continuous enhancements as well.
F. Timeline and Budget Expectations
You should describe your high-level time expectations. You should state when you are looking to start the project and when you are looking to launch the project. You can also state your high-level budget range. This information makes it easier for vendors to decide if they want to bid for your project or not?
Step 4: Define Any Assumptions
You should define all the assumptions that you have made while creating the Scope of work. Your assumptions could be technical submission, cost assumptions, or business assumptions. It is very helpful to state them in the SOW as this makes it easier for all the stakeholders and vendors to understand your assumptions and then help you to validate or disprove your assumptions.
Also read : How to write a mobile app RFP
