Chalk and Cheese continued: ISACA vs itSMF

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.

In 2009 ISACA has done the following:

• ISACA published a significant amount of valuable guidance, including
  • Risk IT: Based on COBIT®
  • Val IT™ Mapping: Mapping of Val IT™ 2.0 to MSP, PRINCE2 and ITIL V3
  • Implementing and Continually Improving IT Governance (a new version of one of the core COBIT guidance books)
• ISACA also conducted several studies, such as An Executive View of IT Governance and Building the Business Case for COBIT® and Val IT™: Executive Briefing.
• To fill the need for a comprehensive model to guide information security professionals, the association released an introduction to the Business Model for Information Security (BMIS), which is independent of any particular technology and is applicable across all industries, countries, and regulatory and legal systems. The full model will be released this year.
• The ISACA® Model Curriculum for Information Security Management was developed, as were 10 key IT audit/assurance programs.
• Always a leader in international education, ISACA held successful Computer Audit, Control and Security (CACSSM) conferences, ISACA® Training Week events, e-symposia and other events around the world, including the first ISACA virtual conference.
• ISACA joined the Cloud Security Alliance and issued a white paper, Cloud Computing: Business Benefits With Security, Governance and Assurance Perspectives.

and itSMF ...um... I dunno. Where do I go to get such a report to members? I found it eventually, buried in a post about the Chapter Leaders Conference. Not worthy of an announcement of its own? or a link to to be sent to all members?

Let's see, there was

• The Chapters conference where all the country leaders got together at great expense and then published nothing at all that I am aware of
• Some translations done for OGC - anyone got a list? (not mentioned in the annual report - I found two French books produced)
• The prISM program, created by itSMF USA and piloting there
• The itSMFI signed an MOU with the BCS to further collaborate on research and certifications pertinent to the ITSM market, which has produced... um... nothing I know of
• Engaged a Chief Editor and established an Editorial Advisory Board to create a strategy to look into the possibility of ... um... still waiting on the strategy
• I suppose we could include stuff not actually done by itSMF such as launching the ITIL V3 update, and the new ITIL Master certification
• ...um...

You get my point.