Silent Chaos of Handovers

Handovers are supposed to be smooth. That’s what they tell you. The Reality? It’s more like like inheriting a house where the previous owner left cryptic notes, half-assembled furniture and a basement full of unspeakable horrors.

We’ve all been there. You’re excited to take over a new project, only to realize after 3 coffees that nothing makes sense. Documentation? Outdated. Code? A puzzle. Knowledge transfer? Doesn’t exist…

So, let’s break down delusion of the ‘smooth handover’. Why it’s all in Confluence is a corporate myth and how to prevent future-you from cursing past-you.

Handover Myth: Why ‘Smooth Transitions’ Never Exist

The moment someone says, “Everything is documented”, remember me (you can ping me as well), you know you’re about to enter survival mode.

• The real knowledge lives in people's heads, not in documents. And those people are leaving.

• Documentation is either outdated, missing, or contradicting itself.

• Every ‘handover call’ is just a formality. By the time you need answers, the person is gone and living their best post-job life.

A “smooth handover” is just another way of saying: Good luck figuring it out!

The Great Documentation Deception

Let's talk about those famous last words: "Everything is documented!" If you've been in tech long enough, you know exactly what comes next.

1. The Classic Handover Scene

• A wiki with hundreds of outdated pages that no one maintained.

• Architecture diagram ‘explains everything’ expect it’s a blurry whiteboard photo

2. Where Documentation Goes to Hide

• Half in Confluence, half in Google Docs

• Critical info buried in random Slack threads

• The rest? In the departing dev's head, now unavailable

Real Talk: Why This Happens

It's not that we're bad at our jobs. It's that we're human and humans are hilariously optimistic about future needs.

Here's what's actually going on:

“It’s obvious” Syndrome

• Me, writing code at 2 AM: "This is so simple, I don't need to document it"

• Me, six months later: "Who wrote this mess? Damn... it was me"

Documentation Debt

• Team: "We'll document it properly next sprint"

• Narrator: "They did not document it next sprint"

• Or my personal favorite: "It's self-documenting code" (Narrator: "It was not")

How to (actually) Do a Good Handover

Instead of just pointing fingers, let's talk about what actually works. No fancy frameworks; just practical stuff that real teams can implement:

"Future Stranger" Approach

• Write docs like you're explaining it to someone who will read them while you're on vacation with no internet

• Include “why” not just “what”. e.g. Don’t just say “We use Kafka.” But also explain why you use Kafka?

• Don’t skip the obvious stuff.

Reality-Based Documentation

• Keep a "Start Here" guide that's actually current

• Document your gotchas and weird quirks - every project has them

• Update docs when you fix bugs - future you will thank you

• If something's outdated, delete it or fix it. Zombie documentation helps no one

Prepare Survival Kit

Add guide to …

• Set up development environment (where your project will actually run)

• Debug common issues

• Where important stuff lives (& why)

• Who to blame when things go wrong (just kidding … they will check author name, dw)

Closing Thoughts

Handovers are rarely smooth, but with a little effort, we can at least make them less painful. It’s not about perfect documentation or idea processes. It’s about simple steps that makes a real difference for next person on the project (to make a difference on the project).

🚀 Leave the project in a state where future-you (or someone else) won’t hate you. A little effort today saves a lot of frustration tomorrow.

Until next time, Cheers

How’s your experience with handovers? Let’s share insights and learn from each other. Join the conversation on LinkedIn and 𝕏 

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Thanks for reading,
Kelvin
TechParadox.dev