{"id":40629,"date":"2023-02-23T17:29:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T17:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatfix.com\/blog\/?p=40629"},"modified":"2025-11-08T17:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T17:36:12","slug":"handover-documentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatfix.com\/blog\/handover-documentation\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Create Helpful Handover Documentation (+Template)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organizations in all industries dealing with change management<\/a>, employee turnover<\/a>, and employee onboarding<\/a> must rely on handover documentation to transfer information and responsibilities efficiently, with as little workflow interruption as possible.<\/p>\n

Regardless if we\u2019re discussing a new employee, a change in job roles, or a project handover, having clear and comprehensive process documentation<\/a> is crucial for a smooth transition.<\/p>\n

Here, we\u2019ll explore the importance of handover documentation, learn how to design and structure it, and show you four effective and helpful documentation templates you can use in your organization.<\/p>\n

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What Is Handover Documentation?<\/h2>\n

Handover documentation refers to the essential or critical information that transfers a task, project, or job role from one person or team to another.<\/p>\n

This documentation typically includes information about a project’s scope, duties, timeline, deadlines, budget, deliverables, challenges, and other vital data. The purpose of handover documentation is to ensure a smooth transition and continuity of work, regardless of the underlying reason for the change.<\/p>\n

Effective handover documentation should be clear, concise, and relevant to the handover context. It should allow the person or team taking over to quickly understand the project’s current state and easily take over the day-to-day tasks and associated responsibilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Types of Handover Documentation<\/h2>\n

Depending on the industry, the nature of the handover, and the needs of the parties involved, we can talk about several different types of handover documentation:<\/p>\n

1. Knowledge handover<\/h3>\n

Knowledge handover documentation or knowledge transfer plans are a common practice in many industries, whenever it\u2019s necessary to train a new employee or a new team on a task or a project. The purpose of knowledge handovers is to quantify, qualify, structure, and capture your learnings in a way that\u2019s understandable and easy to follow for the person taking over.<\/p>\n

\"knowledge-handoff-document-plan-template\"<\/p>\n

2. Project handover<\/h3>\n

Project handover documentation comes in handy throughout the entire project development journey each time one team completes their job and hands off the project to the next team. For instance, project handovers can be given from the design team to the development team to take over and finalize the project.<\/p>\n

\"project-handover-example-template\"<\/p>\n

3. Offboarding handover<\/h3>\n

When an employee leaves the organization or moves to a different job role, HR is responsible for deploying a structured employee offboarding process<\/a>. Offboarding handover documentation is a part of this process since it serves to tie up all the loose ends and transfer all the know-how and on-the-job experience from the departing employee to the new employee.<\/p>\n

4. Department handover<\/h3>\n

Department handovers occur when there\u2019s a restructuring of the roles and responsibilities within an organization or when a department is closing down. The goal of the department handover documentation is to ensure that the new department has all the necessary information, tools, skills, and resources to continue the work of the old department.<\/p>\n

5. Design handover<\/h3>\n

Design handovers are most common in product teams working with mockups, templates, and similar tools. As such, design handover documentation typically includes typography, mockups, colors, specs, animations, templates, tools, and similar company and brand assets.<\/p>\n

Aside from the above-mentioned types of handover documentation, you might also encounter different ones, such as succession plans<\/a>, sales-to-service handoffs, and financial handovers.<\/p>\n

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Related Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n