I’m a sucker for blockbuster movies, and one among my all-time favorites is Fight Club starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. For those of you unfamiliar with this gritty film, it is the story of an insomniac office worker who meets a soap salesman and together they form an underground fight club. The fight club is a brutal affair, but founded on a group of spoken and indisputable rules.

This got me considering the significance of rules and the struggle IT professionals have day by day attempting to explain to their business counterparts the cost of latest disruptive technologies — and the way like within the Fight Club, the winners might be people who stick with the guidelines.

Rule #1: You don’t speak about disruptive technologies.

Mention DevOps, cloud or perhaps mobility and watch the eyes of what you are promoting colleagues glaze over. We’ve all made this error normally before, throwing acronyms like ITIL, COBIT, SOA, MDM and APIs (to call but a number of) at our business peers without translating them into clear and unambiguous business terms. It usually is done with just a little careful thought. For instance, a CIO acquaintance of mine is building a business case for what amounts to a DevOps project by calling it something totally different — a business acceleration initiative. Furthermore, the success of this initiative is being measured on the way it drives new business.

Rule #2: You don’t discuss disruptive technologies.

When you keep attempting to impress individuals with your technocratic prowess, you’ll never get to a business case. Remember, the word “disruptive” evokes all types of unpleasant images for business executives, so lead with describing both the business value of the technology trend and the chance cost in case your organization ignores it. As an example, if you are looking to describe application program interface (API) development and management, never talk RESTful APIs, JSON, OAUTH and JavaScript. Rather, describe how you want to speak about opportunities to reshape traditional business models via external partners and new channels.

Rule #3: No-holds-barred “shadow IT” is permitted.

While you don’t embrace disruptive technologies, the business probably will anyway whether you favor it or not. Mobile apps and cloud services don’t require armies of skilled technicians to put in and maintain. On the contrary, they’re simple to access (self-service), they deliver immediate productivity, they usually provide attractive subscription pricing models (prepaid) or may also be free. Consider also that a number of your personal IT colleagues are probably conducting “shadow IT” or “rogue IT” — especially those in development, who’re probably using cloud-based development platforms and tools to hurry the delivery of recent apps and services.

Rule #4: There is additionally multiple fight at a time.

Most disruptive technology trends are interrelated so don’t consider each in isolation. For example, any foray into mobile application development will probably place your existing testing and release timetables at odds with hyper-accelerated delivery requirements. Careful consideration should therefore receive to “people-centric” activities that unify teams toward the typical goal of helping the business stay relevant and completely exploit new channel opportunities. Notice how I followed rule #1 and #2 and didn’t mention DevOps or mobility.

Rule #5: If the business says “stop,” the fight is over.

Anything disruptive that’s shaped by technology needs to be measured against a transparent set of industrial goals. As an example, can your DevOps team meet the commitment to extend time-to-market by 30%? If that is so, by how much did the defect rate for your application releases fall and the way did this improve customer support? Similarly, how has the introduction of a brand new cloud service ended in better performance, reliability and scalability — and the way did this affect revenue? In all cases, the name of the game sauce is a fixed of clear business metrics, i.e. increased transaction throughput and growth of recent channel business. Follow this rule and you’re at the road to success. Ignore it and your initiative might be counted out within the first round.

So go ahead, join the Fight Club and embrace new disruptive technology, but remember: follow the guidelines and not lose sight of the business opportunity — that’s where the fight is actually won and lost.

The crucible of cloud, big data and distributed computing is hell on systems. Will application performance management quiet down complexity — or simply add fuel to the hearth? Also within the new, all-digital APM Under Fire special issue of InformationWeek:Cloud industry heavyweights discuss the professionals and cons of OpenStack support for Amazon APIs. (Free registration required.)