What should a BMS handover runbook actually contain?

A handover runbook is the document the estates team reads at 2 a.m. when a setpoint is wrong and the project team has left site. If it is not written for that moment, it is not a runbook — it is a contractual artefact.

Sections that earn their place

• System architecture diagram with current IP addresses, not the design-stage placeholders.
• Operator workflows for the five most common ops events — schedule change, setpoint override, alarm escalation, planned maintenance, fault triage.
• Alarm priority matrix and who escalates to whom.
• Vendor-support routes per subsystem, with contract reference and SLA.
• Known issues and quirks — the things the project team learned during commissioning that don't live in any specification.
• Change-control procedure for setpoints, schedules and graphics.

The Vendor-Maintenance schedule and the IO list belong as appendices, not as the main body. Most runbooks invert this.