Knowing Handover Prerequisites
Before the turnover takes place, a number of steps must be completed:

• Complete physical installation.
• Complete system testing, including performance testing.
• Conduct user training.
• Convert information and successfully complete a period of parallel operation (although in some cases, this follows handover rather than preceding it).

Achieving the Milestone
Handover can be an exciting, rewarding, nerve wracking milestone -the culmination of a lot of exhaustive work and worry. It also can be critical from a contractual viewpoint. If your system is based on a commercial vendor's product, this is the date that warranty periods commence. If you've hired a contractor to do custom development, they also typically provide a warranty period for their code (i.e., during which they will fix bugs at their expense), and handover is when the clock starts ticking.

To cap off this discussion of implementation, here's a poetic look at the process.