Section 2. The Client, the Customer, and Other Stakeholders

2. The Client, the Customer, and Other Stakeholders

This section describes the stakeholdersthe people who have an interest in the product. It is worth your while to spend enough time to accurately determine and describe these people, as the penalty for not knowing who they are can be very high.

Each of the stakeholders has some need the product has to fulfill. That is to say, the stakeholders are the sources of requirements. If you do not discover all of them, you are unlikely to discover all of the requirements.

This section of the specification identifies the stakeholders to the project team. Wherever possible, give the name and contact details for the stakeholder.

Chapter 3, Project Blastoff, provides a full explanation of each of the different types of stakeholders. Also refer to appendix D, Project Sociology Analysis Templates, for guides to help you discover the stakeholders.

2a. The Client

The client is the person who pays for product development. For products developed for in-house consumption, the client is sometimes known as the sponsor and may be the manager of the user department. For products intended for external sale, your client may be the marketing department or product (sometimes program) management.

The person with the budget is normally regarded as the client, and it is he you have to satisfy with your product. Taking the time to understand who this person is will help you to know what kind of product you have to build. Name the client with an entry like this:

The client for the product is Mack Andrews, the chief executive of Saltworks Systems.

2b. The Customer

The customer is the person who buys your product. What kind of person is he? What attributes can you give to the customer, and what do you have to build to entice him to buy your product?

Describe the customer, and everything that you know about him.

The customer for the product is the Northumberland County Highways Department, represented by director Jane Shaftoe.

If you are using personas as your customers, include a complete description of them in this section. A persona description is rarely too verbose.

2c. Other Stakeholders

The other stakeholders are people who have some interest in the product or some knowledge needed for the development of the product. They do not necessarily have a financial interestalthough the description does not preclude itbut do have an interest in the outcome for the product. It is important to identify and involve all relevant stakeholdersfailure to do so may mean either that you miss vital requirements or that you end up with people actively working against your product.

The stakeholders are identified at blastoff time. They are listed in this section of the requirements specification to formalize their involvement and to give the requirements gatherers a list of people to interview. Wherever possible, give names and contact details for your stakeholders. You should also show any prioritization of stakeholders in this section.