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Sample definitions....Client A person or group outside the organization. For an internal service provider, clients are people throughout the rest of the enterprise. (In IT, formerly called a "user.") For an enterprise, clients are people in other enterprises. Clients are typically customers who benefit from deliverables, but may at times also be suppliers who sell deliverables to the organization. Note that the term "client" refers to a group of people, while "customer" and "supplier" refer to a role in the context of a specific transaction. Clients must be empowered (by a purser) to spend resources before buying from the organization. Customer The person, group, or organization (or consortium of those) who will benefit from a deliverable. May be a client or another group within the organization (such as a prime contractor who is buying from a subcontractor). Customers own the product or consume the service upon completion of the supplier's work. Customers must request funding from a project purser who controls a checkbook. Group A structural entity that is a subset of an organization, but not a complete organization in itself; a set of people who report to a common supervisor. Members of a group may be involved in many teams. Team A set of people working together to achieve a specific deliverable; disbanded once the deliverable is completed. May be a project or service-delivery team. Members of a team may report to one or more groups. Own To have authority over and accountability for an asset. Authorities include the right to decide what the asset is (e.g., features, when to upgrade it), and the disposition of an asset (e.g., whether or not to buy, change, or dispose of the asset, as well as who gets to use it and the terms of use). With authority comes accountability for returns on the asset, including asset safe-keeping, performance, utilization, and tracking. The "moral" owner of an asset is the group that has the above authorities and accountabilities, regardless of legal ownership (all assets may be owned by the enterprise) or how the asset as carried on the enterprise's financial records. (Note: Slang usage equates "own" with "accountable for selling," a confusion of customers' and suppliers' roles. In a project which delivers an asset, ownership is the role of customers, not suppliers, except for in-process inventory.) In addition to examining the reality of authorities and accountabilities, the following guidelines may be useful in determining the current ownership of disputed assets:
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