The users of the Hephaestus Process fall into 3 broad categories: DCNS Development staff, DCNS Development management, DCNS Development customers.
The primary users of Hephaestus are DCNS Development staff: full-time permanent staff, voucher employees, and part-time student staff (UROP). Development staff possess skills and experience which exhibit a wide variety of talents and backgrounds, ranging from users who have had very little experience with a structured development process to those who have worked many years within such a process (usually in other environments). Development staff will be involved extensively in all phases of the development process.
The management side of DCNS Development understands the benefits of structured programming and an organized development process. Management will be involved to some extent in all phases of the development process. One of management's responsibilities in the process is to facilite and ensure compliance with the Hephaestus process. It is expected that both DCNS Development management and staff will derive great benefit from a structured development process, increasing productivity and product quality.
Customers of DCNS Development services will also be occasional or frequent users of the Hephaestus Process. Their perspectives may be different though, depending on their roles as participants in the process or upon the level or amount of service they require. These perspectives include those of the documentation group, who may be involved in the creating the documentation of a product; the operations group, who may be involved in maintaining a server component of the product; user support, who may be involved in supporting the product for the end user; and the end user, who will of course be using the product.
Customers may or may not understand the benefits of an organized development process, depending on their background and the urgency of the service they require. Customers will be involved intensely in some phases of the Hephaestus Process. It is expected that customers will benefit greatly from the development process, in terms of improved quality and predictability of service.