Across the night
What crosses the night
What survives a handover, in what state, and the difference between handing over finished work and handing over a puzzle.
four things · four nights · one that no number of nights settles
Four states, and only the first costs nothing extra.
What Survives a Handover and What Does Not
A handover carries artefacts and written reasoning well, half-formed judgement badly, and the feeling that something is wrong not at all.
Handing Over Work That Is Actually Finished
Finished work is the cheapest thing that crosses a gap, provided the word finished means the same thing at both ends.
Handing Over Something Half Built
Half-built work arrives as an artefact the next person has to rebuild a mental picture around, and the size of that job is set entirely by three sentences.
Handing Over Something Waiting on an Answer
Work stopped for an answer is the one state where a few extra words at handover routinely save two nights rather than one.
The State Work Has to Be Left In
Where somebody stops matters as much as what they write, because a half-built thing whose brokenness is uninterpretable carries no information at all.
The Handover Note, and What Belongs in It
A good handover note is three sentences long and names the things that cannot be seen in the work itself. Longer notes get skimmed.
What Not to Hand Over at All
Some work costs more to hand over than to hold, and the signal is always the same: it has crossed more than twice without moving.
The Thing That Keeps Coming Back
Work that crosses the gap repeatedly without converging is a recognisable failure with three ordinary causes, and it is cheap to catch at the third pass.
Handing Something to Somebody Not Expecting It
Work that arrives unannounced lands on a day that is already committed, and the cost is paid by somebody who had no chance to plan for it.