The ownership, access and support questions to settle before your software goes live.
Agree who owns what
Identify the owner of the repository, domain, hosting account, sending domain and other services the product depends on. Record any third-party licences and recurring costs. Ownership and intellectual-property terms belong in the contract rather than an informal assumption made at the end of delivery.
Plan access carefully
Name the people who need administrative access and the responsibilities attached to each account. Use individual accounts where the service supports them. Store secrets in an appropriate secret-management system rather than in a handover document. Plan how supplier access will be reviewed when the engagement changes.
Document routine operations
A useful handover explains how to release a change, check the application, identify a failure and contact the responsible person. Include dependencies and environment configuration without copying secret values. Ask someone who did not write the document to follow it in a safe test environment and record any missing steps.
Test recovery before it matters
A backup is only part of a recovery plan. Agree what data is backed up, where it is kept, who can restore it and what the business can tolerate losing. Test the restore on a separate environment. Record the outcome and any operational steps that still depend on a particular individual.
Define the support relationship
Separate a defect from a new feature and an operational incident. Agree the support channel, service hours, escalation route and any contracted response targets. Make sure someone owns platform updates, dependency reviews and the feedback backlog. A successful launch includes a clear plan for the weeks that follow.
Your next working session.
- Inventory business accounts
- Test operational instructions
- Agree support coverage
Bring one real, anonymised example to the discussion. Work through the choices above with the person responsible for the outcome, record the unresolved questions and agree who will investigate them.
Elite Apps editorial · Practical planning guidance. Examples and diagrams are illustrative; implementation depends on your requirements. Technical and supplier guidance can change.
