The IT Skeptic - ISACA

What to think of the ISACA acquisition of CMMI?

skeptic — Sun, 06 Mar 2016 00:27:13 +0000

I'm not sure what to think of ISACA's acquisition of the CMMI Institute. I don't see it addressing their major issue of failure to expand constituency. What are your views?

ISACA Bylaws change 2015

skeptic — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 21:37:37 +0000

Rumblings of dissent over ISACA internal governance? Say it ain't so.

ISACA's strategy and missed opportunity

skeptic — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 22:11:20 +0000

is ISACA missing its window of opportunity to own the IT practices space? To be THE body of knowledge, the one ring to rule them all...

Does ISACA offer value to its real members?

skeptic — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 20:36:59 +0000

ISACA's membership is - reportedly - no longer dominated by security and audit folks. ISACA has a new constituency: the general IT practitioner. Supposedly ISACA wants to align its culture with that new audience, and COBIT 5 is built to be useful in all contexts.

So why aren't we seeing any change? Read the ISACA journal, go to events... the security and audit themes predominate.

I know it takes a long time to change culture but its five years now since ISACA first talked about this.

ISACA can rescue itSMF

skeptic — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 13:45:53 +0000

itSMF International is broken. At a chapter level itSMF is just fine in a number of countries. What we need is an international federation mechanism driven by a healthy organisation. Ooh wait, ISACA has one of those. And ISACA's problem is a failure to cater for general IT practitioners at a conference and local level. Sounds like a marriage made in heaven to me: could ISACA save itSMF?

Two new heads

skeptic — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 10:18:49 +0000

No that isn't a reference to a hillbilly's baby. We've seen two announcements this past week of people heading up organisations owning major bodies of knowledge: the Capita ITIL-PRINCE2 JV, and ISACA. Somewhat of a contrast.

ISACA's long cultural road

skeptic — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 09:25:40 +0000

Will ISACA ever shed the audit-and-security culture and embrace a more general IT practitioner orientation as hinted by Lynn Lawton four years ago now?

Can COBIT ever be more than a sideshow if they don't? No.

Where's the COBIT 5 training?

skeptic — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 20:40:50 +0000

Here we go again. COBIT 5 is hot: the industry itches to get using it. APMG is signed up to roll out the training programme. The ITIL V3 training courses faced a similar situation a few years back. The ITIL training courses (also administered by APMG) came out later than promised, much to the frustration of an industry busting to put it to work. Now we see the same thing again with COBIT 5. Rattle your dags, ISACA and APMG!

ISACA appoints Australian president

skeptic — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:07:29 +0000

Following on from a Kiwi Chair of itSMF International, an Aussie takes the helm at ISACA. Australasians rock.

Breaking news: APMG to accredit COBIT5 training industry. Fort COBIT?

skeptic — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:02:54 +0000

In a press release today, ISACA announced

Four new COBIT 5 training courses will be launched over the next five months as the result of a new partnership between ISACA and APMG-International.

COBIT 5 will be released in April

skeptic — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 23:28:34 +0000

ISACA have announced to members that COBIT 5 will be released in "mid-April".

The release includes three publications:

COBIT 5 (Framework)
COBIT 5: Enabling Processes
COBIT 5 Implementation

...and a "toolkit", an undefined "set of resources". I smell spreadsheets.

Cost to ISACA members for the pdf version? Nada. Free. Suck on that Cabinet Office/TSO/itSMF.

And ISACA is providing a separate download server for members so as not to have to compete for bandwidth with the great unwashed masses.

How does OGCs MoV stack up against ValIT?

skeptic — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 22:18:26 +0000

[Ooops I used the wrong licensing terms so part of this post has been deleted. Sorry about that, my mistake]

OGC have launched Management of Value™, another framework. It looks from the little information available to be comparable to ISACA's Val IT.

A study in governance: comparing Castle ITIL with ISACA

skeptic — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:40:17 +0000

It is always illuminating to use COBIT as a benchmark to study ITIL. In recent days, ISACA has announced another solid Board, whilst itSMF continues its infighting (see below), APMG expands its empire, TSO goes its own merry way unanswerable, and OGC tightens control over - and profit from - what everyone thought was public property (blog coming if I can ever unravel it all).

Chalk and Cheese continued: ISACA vs itSMF

skeptic — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:41:45 +0000

With a new itSMF Board meeting as we speak, perhaps it is salient to review what we got in 2009 as members of itSMF and ISACA, two similar-sized organisations with supposedly similar functions and similar annual membership fees. I've written before about how the two are chalk and cheese, and that remains true.

ITIL-COBIT mapping shows even less coverage by ITIL

skeptic — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:00:53 +0000

Along the way, I've somehow never got around to discussing a very important paper: Aligning COBIT® 4.1, ITIL® V3 and ISO/IEC 27002 for Business Benefit. This is one of the official OGC Alignment White Paper Series that do the alignment between ITIL V3 and the other frameworks, that ITIL V3 should have done in the first place.

COBIT 5 taskforce - who will steer the next generation COBIT?

skeptic — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 08:50:50 +0000

ISACA have announced the members of their COBIT 5 taskforce, to develop the next generation COBIT.

Memo to itSMF: this is how you run an organisation

skeptic — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:33:56 +0000

I've blogged before about how ISACA and itSMF are chalk and cheese and how this shouldn't be so - we could be brothers. I'm reminded of this again with ISACA's Invitation to Participate. itSMF members read it and weep.

How to assemble all the ITSM reference library you need for $211

skeptic — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:33:21 +0000

[Updated 13th May 2010]
With seemingly everyone gouging the ITIL user these days, is there an alternative for those of us who can't just (or just can't) get the boss to pay the exorbitant prices? You bet.

ISACA's new strategy for COBIT and its future impact on ITIL

skeptic — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:58:58 +0000

In my post about the control of ITIL the IT Swami conjectured that the future might hold ISACA gaining control of ITIL's space and possibly merging with itSMF. If that does not happen, it is pretty clear from ISACA's newly announced strategy that they are going to end up competing at least on the boundaries of their respective turfs and possibly over a large overlapping area.

Who now controls ITIL?

skeptic — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:04:23 +0000

Who now controls ITIL? Who sits atop this multi-billion-dollar empire and calls the shots? The real power behind ITIL is still fragmented, although one wonders for how long. The IT Swami predicts!