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.

This is CBR's ninth annual IT trends issue. For nearly a decade we've gathered and analyzed data across a broad range of IT topics: analytics, IT spending, hiring and outsourcing, IT's role in innovation and value creation, social media, mobile computing, the cloud, security, and so on. Like all issues of CBR, each IT trends issue gives you an up-to-the-moment look at the "vital signs" of the industry. But more importantly, because we are able to look at how signs change over time, every year each IT trends issue just keeps getting smarter and smarter.