Customers are the end user or EVENTUAL CONSUMER of every Solution. Being an important part of Lean-Agile development, they contribute through few specific responsibilities in SAFe. It’s a worldwide known fact that the customers are difficult. They anticipate solutions to work well and to resolve their present requirements. They also expect their solution providers to continuously improve the quality of their products and services.

The CUSTOMER is a part of the Value STREAM and can be external or internal. Internal customers are within the organizations requesting to create internal apps such as Intranet, HR services or admin portal.

Where as a Business Owner is a role defined to represent management outside the Team. In practice the Business Owner is either the ‘lead’ Stakeholder, the Team’s SPONSOR, or the Product Owner’s Product Owner. “Business Owners are a small set of stakeholders who have the principal business and technical accountability for governance, compliance, and return on investment (ROI) for a Solution developed by an Agile Release Train (ART). They are key stakeholders on the ART who must evaluate fitness for use and actively participate in certain ART events.” – ScaledAgileframework.com