How to Profit from the Customer Development Life Cycle
Increasing profits and reducing costs at each stage of the software development life cycle through focus on the customer
Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. ~ Bill Gates
A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” – Mahatma Gandhi
The dollars that go into your pocket from your job came from a customer. Businesses live and die on the monitizing the value they produce. In the business of creating, selling and maintaining computer software or services, also known as the software development life cycle (SDLC), customer focus is a key strategic advantage.
Too often however there is a Great Wall — a Grand Canyon gap between those who define or code or test or deliver or sell or support the customer of a software product or service and the purchasers and users.
With over 20 years in the computer software and hardware industry, and having worked for teams and companies focused on customer value, I have seen ways to infuse end user focus into the entire product life cycle without complete disruption of standard industry methodologies. These practices can fit into any development approach be it traditional waterfall or agile or something else.
Read my original Medium Post here