Customer

The party that "orders" the project

A customer, often also referred to as client, can be a person or an organization that orders and buys products or services that a business offers.

In project management, the customer is the one defining the requirements of the project and often setting the parameters such as budget and deadlines. The customer, therefore, influences the constraints of a project heavily and plays an active part in the project’s process.

Customers' role includes tasks such as:

• approving the project plan
• requesting changes to the project
• approving or declining the product or service at the end of a project.

You can distinguish between two types of customers:

• Internal customer: from the same organization
• External customer: belongs to another organization

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