'Customers' and 'users': two faces of software quality and productivity

During a recent examination of industry software quality and productivity (Q&P) practices, the authors noted a division into several, not necessarily antithetical but certainly competing, perspectives between quality, productivity, and initiatives, between organizational Q&P goals/measures and individual ones, and between externally and internally motivated Q&P programs. Perhaps most intriguing was the difference in Q&P attitude provoked by a distinction between 'customers' and 'users'. Software development organizations spoke, felt, and acted noticeably different with respect to Q&P depending on how they viewed the recipients of their software. Organizations that felt they had 'customers' focused on software quality, whereas those that had 'users' emphasized productivity.<>