Standard : Engineers understand how their work impacts users and customers
Purpose and Strategic Importance
This standard ensures engineers maintain a clear understanding of how their work affects end users and customers, fostering empathy and aligning technical efforts with real-world value. Awareness of user impact drives better decision-making and prioritisation.
It supports the policy “Pursue Value from the Customer’s Viewpoint” by embedding customer focus into engineering culture and practices. Without this standard, development risks becoming disconnected from actual user needs and business outcomes.
Strategic Impact
- Increases alignment between engineering efforts and customer satisfaction
- Enhances prioritisation based on real user value
- Improves product usability, reliability, and relevance
- Fosters a culture of empathy and accountability among engineers
- Supports continuous delivery of meaningful business impact
Risks of Not Having This Standard
- Features and fixes misaligned with user needs
- Reduced customer satisfaction and adoption
- Inefficient use of engineering resources
- Lower motivation and engagement among engineers
- Increased risk of product failure or irrelevance
CMMI Maturity Model
Level 1 – Initial
| Category |
Description |
| People & Culture |
- Engineers have limited awareness of user needs or impacts. |
| Process & Governance |
- No formal mechanisms to connect engineering work with customer outcomes. |
| Technology & Tools |
- Limited access to user feedback or telemetry data. |
| Measurement & Metrics |
- No metrics link engineering efforts to user impact or satisfaction. |
Level 2 – Managed
| Category |
Description |
| People & Culture |
- Some teams consider user impact but practices are inconsistent. |
| Process & Governance |
- Basic processes incorporate user insights into planning and prioritisation. |
| Technology & Tools |
- Tools provide partial access to user feedback and usage data. |
| Measurement & Metrics |
- Some measurement of customer satisfaction and feature usage exists. |
Level 3 – Defined
| Category |
Description |
| People & Culture |
- Understanding of user impact is embedded in engineering culture and workflows. |
| Process & Governance |
- Formal processes ensure user insights guide engineering decisions. |
| Technology & Tools |
- Integrated platforms provide real-time access to user feedback and telemetry. |
| Measurement & Metrics |
- Metrics inform prioritisation and continuous improvement focused on user value. |
Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed
| Category |
Description |
| People & Culture |
- Data-driven insights optimise alignment of engineering efforts with customer value. |
| Process & Governance |
- User impact metrics influence roadmap and resource allocation decisions. |
| Technology & Tools |
- Advanced analytics predict user needs and feature adoption. |
| Measurement & Metrics |
- Quantitative links exist between engineering work and business outcomes. |
Level 5 – Optimising
| Category |
Description |
| People & Culture |
- Continuous learning culture refines understanding of user needs and impacts. |
| Process & Governance |
- Policies adapt dynamically based on evolving customer insights and market trends. |
| Technology & Tools |
- AI-powered tools personalise engineering focus based on real-time user data. |
| Measurement & Metrics |
- Organisational maturity in customer-centricity drives sustained innovation and value. |
Key Measures
- Percentage of engineering work explicitly linked to user or business impact
- Customer satisfaction and Net Promoter Scores (NPS)
- Usage and adoption metrics for delivered features
- Engineer engagement with user feedback and impact data
- Correlation between engineering focus and business performance