In this issue on healthcare IT, we explore the field’s potential and examine how we can address the issues and challenges that IT and the healthcare industry face in realizing the promise of healthcare IT.

Enabled with the Internet of Everything (IoE), smart services gather and share information directly with each other through onsite and virtual cloud solutions, making it possible to collect, record, and analyze new data streams faster and more accurately. The emerging IoE is a game changer for healthcare.

In this article, we present the promises and challenges of big data and analytics (BD&A) in healthcare, informed by our observations of and interviews with healthcare providers in the US and European Union (EU). We then provide a set of recommendations for capitalizing on the extraordinary innovation opportunities available through big data.

Many healthcare CIOs find themselves caught between technological imperatives and public policy on one hand and internal resistance to change on the other. Some healthcare CIOs who have undertaken massive, IT-driven transformation efforts are confronting serious challenges, from technological hurdles to their own staff's determination that patients, not processes, remain the foremost priority. What many institutions have created is a hodgepodge of healthcare IT (HIT) systems that partially automate their operations and processes without regard to the long-term benefits of these systems. Despite implementing mammoth electronic medical record (EMR) systems and building a host of advanced clinical systems, healthcare CIOs often have been dismayed to find that many of these projects fail completely or don't bring about the desired results.

Many healthcare CIOs find themselves caught between technological imperatives and public policy on one hand and internal resistance to change on the other. Some healthcare CIOs who have undertaken massive, IT-driven transformation efforts are confronting serious challenges, from technological hurdles to their own staff's determination that patients, not processes, remain the foremost priority. What many institutions have created is a hodgepodge of healthcare IT (HIT) systems that partially automate their operations and processes without regard to the long-term benefits of these systems. Despite implementing mammoth electronic medical record (EMR) systems and building a host of advanced clinical systems, healthcare CIOs often have been dismayed to find that many of these projects fail completely or don't bring about the desired results.

Currently, software systems in the healthcare domain are not sufficient to alleviate this crisis. Most of those systems are not extensible or scalable, and they have little interoperability. In this article, I will show how IT analysis methods can help alleviate the crisis by providing tools to build IT software systems that will reduce cost and complexity in the healthcare domain.

Currently, software systems in the healthcare domain are not sufficient to alleviate this crisis. Most of those systems are not extensible or scalable, and they have little interoperability. In this article, I will show how IT analysis methods can help alleviate the crisis by providing tools to build IT software systems that will reduce cost and complexity in the healthcare domain.

The online world has moved to a more open and social model in which popular applications (Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.) function by engaging consumers through sustained interactions consisting of conversations, collaboration, and sharing.

The online world has moved to a more open and social model in which popular applications (Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.) function by engaging consumers through sustained interactions consisting of conversations, collaboration, and sharing.

Management executives sometimes have expectations of delivery scheduling and commitments that they feel they got from waterfall -- even if they were illusory. Well, after moving the delivery team to Scrum, management often has the same expectations. In this Executive Update, let's reset those expectations and assert that Scrum gives you something more realistic -- and better.

In this Executive Update, we will explore how apps and open data combine to create new ways of working for both developers and users and some of the issues, problems, and benefits of working with these new tools and techniques.

In this Executive Update, we will explore how apps and open data combine to create new ways of working for both developers and users and some of the issues, problems, and benefits of working with these new tools and techniques.

It is not too strong an assertion to say that these last few years have been transformative in the potential role and structure of IT in most businesses.

It is not too strong an assertion to say that these last few years have been transformative in the potential role and structure of IT in most businesses.

The world of network regulation is exceedingly murky, yet it is of critical importance as much to business as to the consumer. Technological advances along with changes in the competitive field are forever challenging or amending regulations, as we'll explore in this Executive Update.

The world of network regulation is exceedingly murky, yet it is of critical importance as much to business as to the consumer. Technological advances along with changes in the competitive field are forever challenging or amending regulations, as we'll explore in this Executive Update.

We hear of few organizations that debate whether the enterprise needs a marketing function. However, there is interminable wrangling about the value proposition for EA, and considerable effort devoted to crafting and articulating persuasive arguments for EA's existence. It is obvious that value propositions are necessary only because EA's value is not readily apparent.

This Executive Report is an opinion piece on Scrum versus Kanban. Lead author Johanna Rothman sets forth her argument that one is not necessarily better than the other; they are just different and it’s up to the organization to figure out which method is best under which circumstance. In response, seven of Cutter’s Agile experts discuss their views on crossing the Agile divide.

The ongoing IRS scandal, in which various groups were targeted according to keywords such as "tea party" in the search for infractions, has important lessons for emerging big data techniques.

The ongoing IRS scandal, in which various groups were targeted according to keywords such as "tea party" in the search for infractions, has important lessons for emerging big data techniques.

There are times when major trends intersect. Sometimes they reinforce each other; other times they cancel each other out.

There has been a growing interest in scaling frameworks for Scrum in the past year.

Just a couple of years ago, we were witnessing -- and some of us were deploring -- the "irrational exuberance" as well as the uncontrolled fears of many customers and decision makers about cloud computing.