A project handover must be executable

A repository alone does not make a project ready for handover. The receiving team needs to start the application, assess its condition and publish a controlled change. Technical documentation therefore needs a practical walkthrough.

Demonstrate the handover in practice

• Build a clean working environment from the documented instructions.
• Identify required services, versions and configuration settings.
• Transfer credentials through the designated secure channel and clarify ownership.
• Complete a representative business process and a release together.

Steps known only to one person are particularly revealing: manually created directories, undocumented scheduled tasks or direct data corrections on a server. Include them in the documented workflow or replace them with a controlled technical mechanism.

Finish with an explicit list of unresolved issues, their effects and the responsible people. Further development can then start from a traceable baseline. A large document collection by itself does not make an incomplete handover usable.