Statement of Requirements (SOR)

A Statement of Requirements (SOR) is a document that sets out the operational requirements, capabilities, equipment, facilities, supplies or services needed to meet a defined need. It tells a buyer, and later a bidder, what must be delivered and what the end result has to achieve.

In Canadian federal procurement, the SOR is a core solicitation document. It is often attached to a tender notice as an annex. NATO uses the same abbreviation: its glossary of abbreviations expands SOR as "statement of requirements" for general use and as "statement of requirement" in operational planning.

Who writes the SOR in a federal procurement

The CanadaBuys responsibility matrix between PSPC and clients assigns the client the job of developing a Statement of Requirements, a Statement of Work (SOW), and/or performance specifications or standards. In a procurement led by Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) for a federal client, the SOR therefore generally starts with the client department and defines the need that PSPC then buys against.

The matrix lists what this content can cover: accessibility, technical requirements, quality assurance, acceptance, warranty, training, documentation, packaging, transportation and initial provisioning.

The SOR in Department of National Defence projects and tenders

The Department of National Defence (DND) uses SORs for major equipment and capability projects. Its audit of the preliminary requirement development process describes the SOR as the statement of operational requirements and critical performance criteria. DND develops and refines it during the options-analysis and definition phases of a capital-equipment project.

The SOR also appears in everyday solicitations. DND tender notices on CanadaBuys, such as this one and this one, state that additional information about the solicitation and its requirements is attached as an Annex, Statement of Requirements (SOR).

The SOR in NATO planning and host-nation support

In NATO host-nation-support doctrine, a Statement of Requirement is prepared by a NATO commander or a supporting nation. It details the forces and equipment to be deployed and the facilities, supplies and services needed to support them. It can also identify limitations or shortfalls in the support requested. The allied joint doctrine for host-nation support sets this out.

In operational planning, the SOR identifies required military capabilities, numbers, groupings, command structures and supporting forces or facilities. It can form the basis of the force-generation process, as the allied joint doctrine for non-Article 5 crisis response operations explains. NATO also issues SORs as solicitations. One Allied Command Transformation Statement of Requirement covers the installation of two LED video walls and specifies the work schedule and performance obligations.

How the SOR relates to the SOW and accessibility requirements

Federal buyers use the SOR alongside the Statement of Work, performance specifications, technical requirements, deliverables and acceptance criteria. Accessibility Standards Canada identifies an SOR or SOW as a tool for defining operational requirements and expected deliverables. Its guidance on procuring accessible services recommends putting accessibility requirements into the SOR or SOW, and also into the solicitation evaluation criteria and the resulting contract terms.

What an SOR means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Treat the SOR as a core solicitation document and read it together with the solicitation instructions, evaluation criteria, clauses and any other annexes. Then work through it in order:

• Confirm that your goods or services meet every mandatory requirement.
• Provide the technical evidence, compliance statements, qualifications, deliverables and pricing in the format the solicitation prescribes.
• Plan for requirements on acceptance, warranty, training, documentation, packaging, transportation, accessibility and quality assurance wherever the SOR includes them.
• Deliver in line with the SOR and the resulting contract.

Response obligations differ from one solicitation to the next, so the SOR in each tender notice is the authority for that bid.