Hi Hassan,
I just wanted to add a comment to John's excellent info here. This is only meant as a clarification of "Scope of Work" ideas. This type of document allows you to manage expectations on your part and of course from the clients perpective :) By working through the scope of the project in detail you will be able to mitigate potential problems that arise from not being on the "same page" as the prospective clients. Here are some excerpts from a great doc;
"The Scope of Work sets expectations so that all parties understand what is included and excluded, the phases of the project or service, and the entry and exit criteria for each phase. By creating a well-defined Scope of Work that is based on a blueprinted service, you can minimize scope creep and design your service to proactively meet your customers needs.When designing a service, the Scope of Work should use the results from the service design process to produce a document that specifically spells out what is included and excluded in the service, as well as the team member responsibilities.
Purpose of the Scope of Work
Creates the service boundaries (what is included and what is excluded).
Lends the service to be repeatable and consistent.
Defines the service success factors (what will make this service successful).
Identifies the service phases with entry and exit criteria.
Specifies the customer and solution provider responsibilities.
Service Scope: It is important to look at the service design and provide the high level detail of all that is included in the service. This would include technology areas covered, functionality included, and the ultimate deliverables. It's equally important to detail the service assumptions and exclusions. Assumptions could include dependent systems or specific processes that must be in place and running. Additionally, list in detail what is not included in this service. This is a key area to think through in detail to prevent scope creep and delays. Identify potential points of delay or service failure, and if they're not in your control, specify that your service performance will be affected by any errors or omissions within these customer dependent systems.
Phase Responsibilities: For each phase, detail the responsibilities of both the customer and your organization. It's then easy to review the entire service prior to launch and spell out which actions are required by the customer. By stating the customer requirements in the Scope of Work, you can reference them in the assumptions section by indicating that if the customer responsibilities are not met in their appropriate phases, the timeline will not be met and the service objectives will be at risk.
Phase Deliverables: For each phase, describe and define the deliverables or outcomes of the specific phase. This will help all stakeholders understand the relevancy and importance of each phase relative to the service objective.
Phase Completion Criteria: Completion criteria, or boundary conditions, are critical for each phase. They act as toll gates or checkpoints to make sure that all responsible parties are contributing to reach the goal. In project management terms, they act as milestones to the service where critical actions need to be completed. Think of this in terms of a decision to move forward, or an acceptance of a phase deliverable.
The Finished Product
The completed Scope of Work can take on a variety of forms, but remember that this is ultimately a legal document binding you to perform the services as described."
From this well written (By Paul Born ) Scope of Work doc;
http://www.techlinks.net/CommunityPublishing/tabid/92/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/3679/More-Customer-Satisfaction-Less-Scope-Creep.aspx
Hope this helps! And best of luck going forward!
Rob
