In the IT services industry, you often have to handle existing projects rather than starting a project from scratch. The existing project could be a long-running project, and you are onboarding as an additional team member or replacing an existing team member. At such times, you must take over the project from someone or get the handover done. This is a much more critical exercise than starting a new project as you are trying to onboard a running train (and sometimes that’s a burning train).
If the ‘handover‘ is not proper, it can cause a lot of problems later on, to you individually and to the project, and it could even cause the project to fail.
A proper handover is essential for everyone. This is especially true for leaders like team leads, project managers, and analysts. So, be mindful of a few things when taking over a project.
Things to Keep in Mind Before a Project Handover
Before starting a project, you need to know several aspects. It may seem overwhelming, especially with a short handover time. But here is an ultimate guide to help you with critical points to remember before the handover is deemed complete:
- Identify the Key Stakeholders – Identifying the key stakeholders and introducing yourself to them is the first step. Anyone who can impact the project is a key stakeholder. You should know them, and they should know you before you begin.
- Understand the Project Objectives & Expectations – Read the project charter and project plan, and discuss with the sponsor, end users, and other stakeholders to understand the project objectives. Often, the objectives change or get diluted over time due to changing scenarios, so understand the current expectations as well.
- Know Your Team – Get to know the team well with whom you will be working. Get to know their strengths and weaknesses. Don’t rely completely on others’ narratives; instead, talk to them individually to draw your conclusions.
- Get to Know the Project Process – Processes could be different or tailored from project to project. Get to know the process for communication, development plan, deployment, support, SLAs, SOPs, reporting, artifacts, sign-offs, etc. that are being followed. You might not like all that you see, but understand it before you plan to change any of it.
- Validate Your Project Understanding – Once you have spent some time and understood the project well enough, document your understanding. Hold reverse knowledge transfer sessions to share your understanding. Get confirmation from the existing team member(s).
- Align on the Current Status of the Project & Deliverables – Document and circulate the current status of the project and deliverables to all the key stakeholders. This is a crucial step as knowing the challenges is not enough; there needs to be alignment on the current status of the project as well.
- Establish a Plan for the Open Risks and Issues – Identify any open risks or issues that you need to pay attention to immediately. And what work has been done on them until now, so that you can pick it up. Plan for the mitigation and run them with your team before proceeding.
- Identify or Establish Key Metrics – Project metrics provide valuable insight into the current status of the project. Look for existing metrics around the schedule, budget, quality, customer satisfaction, and other critical aspects. If such metrics are not in place, devise on your own based on your project understanding and get an alignment on the same with stakeholders.
- Plan for Immediate Deliverables – After the handover, focus on the project’s immediate deliverables. Identify the deliverables for the next couple of sprints or months so that you can plan for them beforehand and hit the ground running.
- Stay Connected with the Outgoing Member – Most projects have a brief handover period. There is much to learn and tasks to manage. It’s easy to miss critical details during this time. To avoid gaps, maintain a positive relationship with the outgoing team member. This ensures you can reach out to them for clarification or help even after they’ve moved on, providing a valuable safety net for your transition.
Handover Challenges: Being Cautious Helps
Handovers are always a challenge. If you are taking over from a member who is exiting the project, chances are her heart is not in it. A new person gets overwhelmed by the info, tasks, and people to connect with. But if the handover isn’t done, it could become a nightmare.
This checklist can help simplify the often chaotic handover process. A focused effort is needed from the new person in charge. She must work to run things independently.