A handover should let the next person operate the website without having to reconstruct how it works.
Here is the checklist I would use:
– Source: repository access, required assets and a build command that works.
– Domain: a named administrator, DNS access and an account-recovery path.
– Hosting: the actual production project, deployment instructions and the last working release.
– Integrations: an owner and test procedure for forms, booking tools, email and other connected services.
– Recovery: where backups live, how to restore them and who handles problems after handover.
For each item, record the owner, the maintainer, the evidence checked and anything still unresolved. Keep passwords in a password manager, not in the handover document.
A useful acceptance check: ask the incoming maintainer to make a harmless change in a preview environment and find the recovery instructions. If they cannot do that without asking where everything is, the documentation needs another pass.
Also separate a website rollback from a database restore. Being able to deploy an older version of the site does not prove you can recover its data.
Managed hosting can still make sense. The responsibilities and exit process just need to be clear.
I run Click and Mortar. The full checklist and an ownership matrix are in our Field Note:
https://clickandmortar.bio/blog/website-handover-ownership-checklist
What is the one thing you wish the previous developer had documented?
AI-assisted writing.
Source: r/u/Click-and-Mortar · by /u/Click-and-Mortar