Most of the architects, CIOs and CTOs I have run across tend to have a natural curiosity for technological trends. Kind of an obvious statement given their roles, but what I’ve also found is that these same individuals are some of the biggest skeptics you’ll find. I would include myself in that mix. Why? Because we’ve been burned, over … Read more
One of the many lessons learned in my early Cerner Experience was looking through the current set of seemingly insurmountable problems and being able to keep the long-term vision in perspective. I recently read a book called The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Horowitz) where the author uses a car racing analogy to make the point. If … Read more
The history of complex enterprise wide systems implementations and support are littered with stories of failure, risk and consequences. Every person on the value chain of a systems implementation emotionally buys in to the excitement of the potential outcomes for process automating systems. The humans that architect, create requirements, develop, configure, test and support these … Read more
The fourth experience I would like to share was one of those off experiences I have always remembered, but didn’t really understand until I personally experienced frustration in team members lack of urgency. After the Community Hospital of Indianapolis (CHI) experience, one of our crack sales guys sold a project at Kuakini Medical Center in … Read more
The third experience I would like to share was confusing back in the day, but clear as it can be now. As a recent college graduate with a degree in Medical Technology, I viewed the responsibility of patient safety with the utmost importance, like any professional in healthcare does. Well, as I wrote in the … Read more
Thirty years ago I was fortunate to get the opportunity to combine my formal education as a Medical Technologist (BSMT) with my technical tendencies and joined a startup called Patterson, Gorup, Illig and Associates, now known as Cerner. This year marks thirty years since joining Cerner and 15 since leaving in 1999. I wish to … Read more
While growing up in Casper Wyoming I often worked for my dad in his plumbing business and was called the “what is it kid.” I loved to take things apart and figure out how they work. So systems thinking was a natural tendency and reinforced by learning how plumbing and heating systems work. Thirty years … Read more
Scott was recently asked, “What software would you recommend for mapping/mocking up/wire framing a workflow before you build it?” Here are his recommendations and insights: Although working in Nintex to build a workflow is a completely valid method, as an Enterprise Architect I have found that it can limit your thinking to what the workflow tool can … Read more
Had a puzzler from one of my favorite clients the other day that I wanted to share. The Situation: Said favorite client called me up and said that when he ran a report (it was a SQL Server Reporting Services report he accessed via the Outlook plugin), he was getting improper results. This particular report … Read more
