ABSTRACT
When you conduct a handover, you put a projects deliverables into operation, making them available for whatever use they are to have. It makes good sense to select the handover option during start-up, and to plan the project accordingly. The approach may vary considerably between projects but, for a business or IT system for example, there are at least five possible main approaches:
‘Big Bang’ – where everything comes to life or into use at one time, as if someone had flicked a switch
‘parallel running’ – sometimes used when new business systems are installed and the ‘old’ system continues alongside, either for benchmarking or ‘security blanket’ purposes
‘pilot’ scheme – you arrange some form of route-finding exercise by installing some or all of your project’s outputs, probably in prototype form, to gain stakeholder input to ongoing development before final development and widespread installation; a ‘Model Office’ can be established to try out office furnishing, equipment, system and layout options as part of a relocation or major business system change, such as the introduction of a call centre
‘phased’ implementation – where an agreed sub-set of a project’s outputs is installed at time intervals across an organization until all have been installed, or all the project’s outputs are installed at once in part of an organization, and then at time intervals in other agreed parts of the organization until complete
‘production line’ – where many small outputs will be created, and each can be used on completion.
