{"head":{"title":"What Is a Software Handover? Definition and Checklist","description":"A software handover moves code, accounts, documents and know-how to the team that will run the product. What to include, an example and mistakes.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/glossary/handover"},"crumbs":[{"name":"Home","path":"/"},{"name":"Glossary","path":"/glossary"},{"name":"handover","path":"/glossary/handover"}],"slug":"handover","term":"Handover (software handover)","aka":["handoff","knowledge transfer","project handover"],"category":"Buying software","short":"Moving the code, accounts, documents and know-how of a product from the team that built it to the team that will run it.","body":[["A handover happens when a supplier finishes a build, when a contract ends, or when work moves to an in-house team. A complete one covers the code repository, build and deploy steps, every account and credential, architecture notes, open bugs and known ",{"href":"/glossary/technical-debt","text":"technical debt"},", and a few sessions where the new team asks questions."],["The easiest handovers are the ones prepared from day one: repositories, cloud accounts and app store listings already in the client's name, and documentation kept up as the work goes."]],"why":["If the handover is weak, the next team spends weeks rediscovering how things work, and the product depends on people who have left. A good one is what makes ",{"href":"/glossary/ip-assignment","text":"IP assignment"}," real in practice and keeps ",{"href":"/glossary/vendor-lock-in","text":"vendor lock-in"}," low."],"example":["A startup takes its app in-house after launch. The handover pack has the repository, a one-page architecture diagram, a runbook for deploys and rollbacks, a list of third-party services with their owners, and three recorded walkthroughs. The new hire ships a fix in their first week."],"inBuild":["Handover is planned as the last milestone of a product build, with its own checklist, rather than left for the final week."],"mistakes":[["Accounts opened in the supplier's name for speed and never moved."],["Documentation written in the last week, from memory."],["No overlap period where the new team can ask questions while the old team is still around."]],"related":[{"href":"/glossary/ip-assignment","label":"IP assignment","detail":"The part of a contract that transfers ownership of code, designs and other work from the people who made them to the client."},{"href":"/glossary/source-code-escrow","label":"Source code escrow","detail":"An arrangement where a vendor's source code is held by a neutral third party and released to the customer if agreed events happen."},{"href":"/glossary/vendor-lock-in","label":"Vendor lock-in","detail":"When leaving a supplier, platform or tool would cost so much time or money that you are effectively stuck with it."},{"href":"/glossary/technical-debt","label":"Technical debt","detail":"The future cost of shortcuts taken in code today."}],"tools":[{"href":"/tools/software-maintenance-cost","label":"Software maintenance cost","detail":"Free tool"}],"links":[{"href":"/questions/who-owns-the-code","label":"Who owns the code when you hire a software agency?","detail":"Question"},{"href":"/software","label":"Software by industry","detail":"Systems we build per industry, with guides and tools."}],"sources":[],"legal":false,"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"}