Prepare a digital project handover
Handover succeeds when the receiving team can operate, fix and evolve the service. Prepare deliverables, responsibilities and a real exercise before the engagement ends. An archive of files without procedures remains difficult to use.
Describe the service and dependencies
List source repositories, content, data, media, domains, hosting and external services. Identify owners, purpose and documentation. Access remains in authorised systems, never plaintext shared documents.
Record renewal dates and dependencies on individuals. Separate organisation-owned resources from licensed or subscription items.
Document routine operations
Explain publishing pages, correcting data, deploying versions and restoring copies. Describe prerequisites, acceptance and rollback. Procedures should explain how to recognise a correct result.
Have the receiving person perform the steps. Their questions reveal missing information. Update documentation from the exercise rather than assuming reading is sufficient.
Deliver evidence and limitations
Keep test reports, known defects and deferred decisions. Separate accepted work, accepted limitations and remaining tasks. Screenshots should state context and version.
Include content conventions, media rules and maintenance criteria. Teams need to know when changes require renewed translation, accessibility or performance checks.
Formalise takeover and follow-up
Assign service, content and incident owners. Prepare a reporting channel and initial takeover checks. Define remaining support under agreed terms.
Accept handover based on completed actions: a publication, backup check and simple diagnosis. Retain open items and their next decision.
A record to keep with the decision
| Item | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Inventory | Owners, dependencies and renewals |
| Exercise | Operations performed by the team |
| Takeover | Open items and owners |
Download the worksheet to fill in (CSV)
Frequently asked questions
Is training sufficient?
Training needs usable procedures and a takeover exercise. The person should be able to retrieve steps without relying on memory of the session.
Reference material
Cybermalveillance · Sauvegardes
The practical checklist is an editorial synthesis to adapt to your service. It does not constitute a certification or an audit result.
Continue with a related decision
Resources for this project
Web service provider
Française du Numérique
For a provider-built or maintained website, request a content, dependency, access, backup and recurring task inventory. Test the handover before support ends.
Web and communication provider
CFSN
For a small business combining a website, identity and content, also plan handover of source files, templates, publishing accounts and reuse rights.
Website in French
Sites from the AR ecosystem, selected for their relevance to this topic. Check scope, terms and current offers with each publisher. Our selection method.