In this special double issue of Cutter IT Journal, we endeavor to examine the correlation between empathy and the practices surrounding the systems development lifecycle (SDLC). Our goal is to demonstrate the benefits that an empathy-based approach can bring to the SDLC and the way that IT leaders interact with their internal customers and constituents.

Serious games provide an attractive alternative to traditional innovation techniques for both participants in the innovation process: technology producers and technology consumers. Whether or not producers and consumers behave like innovation partners, or even realize they are engaged in this partnership, innovation does require at least two participants to play. In the best of all possible partnerships, there is a smooth collaboration between the two players, but, as you'll discover in this issue of Cutter IT Journal, this often this isn't the case.

If we had to give advice to college graduates in the year 2020, what would we tell them they need to know to be an effective technology worker or an effective business user of technology? This Cutter IT Journal issue presents five wide-ranging, insightful articles on the possible technological, management, and business skills that executives, managers, and workers in organizations (private and public sector, large and small) will need in the 2020-2025 timeframe as a result of the ceaseless improvement in information systems and their core technologies. Not a client? Download a complimentary copy of this report in PDF format.