Innovative Australian businesses, researchers and investors looking for growth in Australia and in global markets through competitiveness, investment, Tourism and technology.

The entity with which a business unit conducts a business transaction, in a general sense. In most applications, it will correspond to an aggregate of related "contact" (communication) and "account" (billing) records.

a part of our business--not an outsider

a user of a company, and he or she uses the company through a business process

In an XP team, the customer is the person who makes the business decisions. This may be a real customer or someone who represents the users of a system such as a business analyst or a product manager.

Person with understanding of business needs and operational constraints.

(The literature is thin on this one) The primary stakeholder (on-site, in-the-lab) of the system undergoing the XP methodology. Provides the final acceptance criteria for any behavior in the system. Sometimes a team instead of one person. Less optimally, but often likely, this is a Business Analyst who, while they may be a Domain Expert, does not have the final say, but acts as the advocate of the real Customer who is not on-site. (Beware the Customer who knows the Business but does not have the Final Say).

The most generic and all-encompassing term for a firm's targets. The term is used in either the business-to-business or household context and may refer to the firm's current customers, competitors' customers, or current non-purchasers with similar needs or demographic characteristics. The term does not differentiate between whether the person is a buyer or a user target. Only a fraction of consumers will become customers. See: End-User.