The skills are widely practised but to variable degrees for the same reasons noted for the key practices. Individuals can also be expected to represent a range of skills beyond those for which they would regard themselves as qualified. In other words UCD tends to be an add-on to a software development process in order to deliver a more refined solution. We regard the perspectives outlined here as a reflection on the evolution of working practices that need to be seen in an historical context. We are perhaps at the shift from craft to engineering with many companies at the craft level in terms of their daily operational work.
Many companies seem to be concerned with establishing UCD at just the engineering level.
However the leading edge companies seem to recognise already that if design is to be user centred then it needs to be an integral part of managing product strategy as part of setting business directions. We see two interdependent themes. The general drive in industry to manage quality and develop processes in more rigorous ways. Increasingly as experience with UCD develops businesses will need to develop processes in order to understand how best to deploy their resources. UCD skills are scarce, and likely to remain so for some time to come.