What to think of the ISACA acquisition of CMMI?
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?
According to an email from Christos Dimitriadis, Chair of the ISACA Board of Directors:
ISACA has acquired CMMI® Institute, a global leader in the advancement of best practices in people, process and technology. CMMI Institute is the organization behind the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), a globally adopted capability improvement framework that guides organizations in high-performance operations. It provides tools and support for organizations to benchmark their capabilities by comparing their operations to best practices and identifying performance gaps.
By joining forces, we broaden our reach in helping organizations optimize their use of technology, increase value for their stakeholders and improve business performance. For you—our member–that means we can better help you raise levels of enterprisewide performance.
This acquisition is a smart investment for ISACA and our members, and will benefit the individuals and enterprises that ISACA and CMMI Institute serve. We will continue to run the organizations separately, with CMMI Institute operating as a subsidiary. However, we will work closely to identify and maximize opportunities to work together in ways that will benefit our members—including new IP generation and potential expansion of current and future programs.
I guess this is a good thing for increasing ISACA's capability. If I seem underwhelmed it is because I've never been a great fan of maturity assessment. I see a lot more value in COBIT's use of ISO 15504 PAM.
More importantly, the web page about the acquisition refers to "reach more diverse markets" and "the professions we serve". I'd love to know what those professions are. Years ago I hoped that ISACA would expand to support all IT professionals, and COBIT 5 would be the vehicle for it, but ISACA remains fixated on security and audit, not IT management.
I have been backing the COBIT horse as a framework winner for some years now, but it still hasn't left the starting gates. I may have to put my bet somewhere else.
I don't see CMMI changing this any. Thoughts?
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