What a real handover contains
Check this on the last day of the project, not six months after it.
- 01
The repository, with its history intact.
Full commit history in an organisation you control, not a zip of the final state. The history is how the next engineer works out why something is the way it is.
- 02
Infrastructure as configuration, not as prose.
The servers, databases and queues defined in files you can re-run. A document describing how it was set up by hand is an archaeology assignment.
- 03
Every environment variable, and where the secrets actually live.
in the PDF
- 04
One documented way to deploy.
in the PDF
- 05
Accounts in your name, with your billing.
in the PDF
- 06
A runbook for the three things most likely to break.
in the PDF
- 07
The data: schema, and a backup you have restored.
in the PDF
- 08
A record of the decisions.
in the PDF
6 more checks in the PDF
The complete checklist — every check with the reasoning under it, the closing note, and the other 12 documents — comes as one PDF.