Identifying customers

Customer is responsible for communicating the project needs and also verifying that the requirements have been met at the project completion. The customer may be internal like the elements in the supplier-process-customer chain, external clients, the suppliers and the end users or both. Identifying internal customers is difficult and identifying customers involves four steps which include the following:

• Analysing the contract - The contract analysis will help to recognise the external customer or the end-client. This will also help to recognise the end user. If the contract information does not contain the end user particulars then the project team will have to coordinate directly with the customer to decide if the end user is someone other than the customer. The contract analysis will reveal the suppliers or the subcontractors. If the key suppliers are not particularly recognised as the subcontractors then the project team will have to coordinate among their own technical elements or with the organisation's procurement office to determine who among the suppliers will be part of the project implementation.

• Analysing the project team and their organization - This helps to identify the internal customers. This will have to disclose how the work will proceed, which project team or the organisational elements will take part and how it will be linked in the supplier- customer process chain.
• Analyse product use - This analysis begins with identifying the end user and then further understanding who will use the product and how. Quality signifies satisfying the customer requirements and not just meeting the specifications in the contract. Analysing the product use may also disclose the hidden customers, who do not use the product directly but are indirectly affected by their usage like the environment and the aesthetics of the local community.
• Analyse the means of production - This is necessary even if the project involves manufacturing the product, delivering the service or performing some of the intellectual or the administrative activity. This can be clarified or confirmed to the internal customers who have already been identified and approved.