When you hand a project over to another BA, or when you are taking over from somebody else, it’s important to make sure that the appropriate information is transferred. This post will tell you what to look for in this situation.

There are times when you need to take over a project from somebody else, or to hand it over. In order to ensure a smooth transition and avoid unnecessary repetition of work that’s already been done, all the previously collected information needs to be transferred to your successor. It may not happen that often, which is all the more reason to have a checklist of steps that need to be carried out when the situation does arise.

First of all, you’ll need to know who you should be working with. You should find out about key stakeholders, key business function/process owner, and business end users, and how to communicate with them:

  • name, contact details
  • communication style
  • role and attitude
  • frequency of communication
  • log of communications
  • communication granularity level
  • interests – common ground to share

You’ll need to learn the details of the project and the current activities:

  • Project manager details
  • Team member details
  • Key milestones
  • Solution(s)
  • Components
  • Documentation

Naturally, you’ll want to know what’s already been done. This includes the details of provided BA services:

  • Business analysis plan
  • Deliverables (completed and outstanding)
  • Established KPIs

Another thing to consider is the solutions to be delivered:

  • Current state of affairs
  • Details of the release cycle
  • Third parties involved in delivering the solution
  • Solution components
  • Documentation (where to find it, what state it’s in etc.)
  • Queue of enhancements/change requests
  • Known pain points/issues and who raised them
  • Known solution defects, including details of who reported them, who’s responsible for fixes and so on
  • Dependencies
  • Constraints

Finally, don’t forget to get the contact details for relevant vendors and in-house help desks.

We’ve compiled all these steps into a detailed 24-step checklist which you can download here in PDF format:

BA project handover checklist