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Three Reasons Why SOWs Cause IT Project Delays and Cost Overruns


In our experience working with large companies, one principal root cause of an IT project going off budget or off schedule is a poorly written statement of work (SOW) with the external supplier(s) on the project. Almost all IT projects - from digital transformation to more pedestrian support of daily operations - rely heavily on outside suppliers, contractors, and consultants, each with their own SOWs. In this article, we examine how:

  • Too many IT SOWs use Time and Materials approaches that encourage cost and time overruns
  • Poorly-written deliverable descriptions in Fixed Fee IT SOWs lead to project problems
  • Companies pay very different amounts for the same IT SOW work