QA handover pack checklist
A handover is finished when the team can run the next release without the person who is leaving. That depends less on documents than on each document having an owner who has already used it.
Start filling this in weeks before the last day. For every row, name a person inside the team and have them use the artefact once on real work while the outgoing tester is still there to review.
QA HANDOVER PACK — <team> Handover date: <date> Artefact | Where it lives | Owner in the team | Used by owner on real work? ----------------------------+----------------+-------------------+---------------------------- Strategy one-pager | <link> | <name> | <yes, date / not yet> Severity rules + examples | <link> | <name> | <...> Readiness note template | <link> | <name> | <...> and the last three notes | | | Smoke checks (API, journey) | <repo, how to | <name> | <...> and what a failure means | run> | | Integration map | <link> | <name> | <...> Environments and test data | <link> | <name> | <...> (accounts by role, known | | | differences from prod) | | | Test-case guidelines | <link> | <name> | <...> Dashboards | <link> | <name> | <...> OPEN RISK REGISTER - <known, unresolved risk> — owner: <name> — review: <date> - <accepted by Product, when, until when> - <never tested, and why> - <suspected, not proven: what was seen> NOT AUTOMATED, AND WHY - <check> — <reason: unstable, too costly, needs a person's judgement> WHO TO ASK AFTER I LEAVE - <topic> — <name inside the team> Access to remove on the last day: <accounts, devices, licences>
Free to use and adapt. No sign-up, no attribution needed.
How to use it
- A link with no owner will be out of date within a quarter.
- Reverse the roles before the end: the team writes the readiness note and runs the smoke checks, and the outgoing tester reviews.
- Be honest in the risk register about what was never tested. It is the most valuable page in the pack.
- Write down what was deliberately not automated, so nobody spends a month rediscovering why.
Terms used here: QA handover, Embedded QA, Deferred risk.