Statement of work and Project charter

Statment of work - Statement of work is narrative description of product and service to be delivered by the project. This is the SOW’s definition by PMI’s PMBOK-IV.
A statement of work for an IT project should contain at least following information.
1. Purpose or goal of the project
2. Project scope
3. Deliverables
4. Cost and schedule information
5. Project success or acceptance criteria
6. Constraints
7. Assumptions
8. Management guidelines

Project Charter - Project charter documents business need, customer's requirements, new product, service or result and other project details as listed below.
1. Project purpose or justification
2. Measurable project objective or success criteria
3. High level requirements
4. High level project description
5. High level risks
6. Summary milestone schedule
7. Summary budget
8. List of stakeholders authorizing the project charter
9. Responsibility and authority level of project manager
10. Project approval requirements

The different between statement of work and project charter is statement of work is prepared by customer or sponsor and it’s used as input to create project charter. Project charter contains risks and project charter formal authorizes the execution of the project.