10.3 Project Customers

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In the simplest terms, a project’s customers are defined as the beneficiaries of the project implementation. They are the ones that directly receive the benefits of all the effort of putting the project into an organization’s infrastructure. Often, they are called users. At the same time, they also receive the negative effects of a project, and you can bet they will not be shy in telling you about those negative factors. Because they are so directly affected by the project, it is wise to include them in every aspect of the identification of the root cause, the determination of a solution that meets the needs of a good business fit, and the overall planning, design, and testing of the solution. Without their participation at each of these critical junctures, the likelihood of the project going south increases significantly.

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