end user?

[Wilcox, Rose (ZB5646)]

Yes, in the sense of a computer program, the system administrator might also
"use" parts of the program to change passwords, maintain data, etc.  The
system administrator is not using the program for its main purposes, hence
different types of users.  The "end users" are the people who use the
program for its main intended purpose or purposes.  Since the users of a
computer program may range from clerks to engineers to management, sometimes
it is easier just to call them users.  Sometimes requirements analysts had a
need to talk about those types of users separately from the system
administrators or other technicians who maintained the program and yet still
were using it, hence the term "end users".

Rosie Wilcox
a mere technical writer who is getting very old now....


-----Original Message-----
From: Felton, Robert [mailto:RFelton at ISA.ORG]
Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 8:40 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: end user?


Is "end user" the senseless aggrandizement of "user" that it seems to be, or
does it actually denote something different than a mundane user?

Robert M. Felton, P.E.
Technical Editor, InTech Magazine
ISA - The Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society
67 Alexander Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

E-Mail: rfelton at isa.org <mailto:rfelton at isa.org>
Phone: (919) 990-9223
Fax: (919) 549-8288