Knowledge transfer and exit plan (handover)
Handing a system from the vendor to the buyer or a new team: code, access, documentation, runbooks and time with the people who built it.
An exit plan written into the contract at the start is easier to get than one negotiated at the end, when the relationship may be over. It lists what is handed over (repositories, cloud accounts, domains, secrets, build pipelines, a runbook), how many hours of sessions the vendor provides, and at what rate. Without it, a software takeover starts with recovering access instead of reading code.
Related terms
- Software takeover (handover): Moving an existing app to a new developer or team: access, code, infrastructure and the knowledge in people’s heads.
- Source code escrow: The vendor deposits source code with a neutral third party, released to the customer if the vendor goes under or stops support.
- Source code ownership (IP assignment): Who legally owns the code you paid for. In Poland, a contractor’s code becomes yours only through a written transfer of rights.
- Runbook: A short document that tells someone else how to run a system: where it lives, how to deploy, how to recover.
- Key person clause: A contract term naming specific people on the vendor’s team who cannot be replaced without the buyer’s consent or notice and a handover.
