What we hand over at the end of a build
A handover is not a zip file. It is everything the next team needs to change the product without calling us — and if it is written at the end of the project, it is already incomplete.
What is in the package
Schematics and board files with the revision that matched the last build. Firmware source with the toolchain pinned and a flashing procedure someone outside the team has followed. Runbooks for the deploy and the rollback. Test fixtures and the procedure they implement. And the bill of materials, with the alternates we qualified.
Any team can read a schematic. What disappears is why the part was chosen.
Reasoning outlives documentation
Any team can read a schematic. What disappears is why a part was chosen, which two constraints were in conflict, and what we measured before picking a side. We keep a decision log per gate — short entries, one per decision — because that is the document people actually reopen a year later.
Written during, not after
Handover material assembled at the end is reconstruction. Written as the work happens, it costs almost nothing and is accurate. This is the single cheapest quality decision on a hardware programme.
