What is customer and CTQ identification?

The customer is typically the one who dictates your output specifications (Y's in the statement Y = f(x)). That is why it is very important to specify project customers (and to prioritize if there are more than one). In other words, the more you know about the customer's needs, wants and expectations, the more precise and accurate the project requirements will be to satisfy them. Customers may be internal or external. In conjunction with the appropriate customer, it is imperative that we also specify and operationally define the project in terms of critical to quality (CTQ) and variable measurements. This means that the more we know about the customer's needs, wants and expectations, the more we can align our project to satisfy the CTQ requirements as well as focus on variable measurements for evaluating our success