Program Background and Introduction

Canadian communities are faced with increasingly difficult challenges that hinder their ability to deliver services from infrastructure.

These challenges include…

Fortunately, infrastructure asset management (AM) can help organizations navigate these challenges and move towards sustainability. When AM best practices are implemented, they can help decision-makers in Canadian communities fully understand the scope of the issues, find and communicate the optimum balance of service, risk and cost for their infrastructure, and plan a financially, environmentally and socially sustainable way forward.

However, industry and public sector infrastructure owners across Canada say their organizations face a serious hurdle when dealing with the country’s infrastructure challenges: They are struggling to build the workforce capacity and capabilities required to develop and implement formal, organization-wide AM programs. The Canadian Network of Asset Managers (CNAM) brought together a broad coalition of national associations involved in supporting AM, community planning and management, and AM-related industry professions in Canada to use their collective expertise to meet this challenge. The Asset Management Competency Framework for Canadian Communities (AMCF) was the result.

What is Asset Management?

Asset Management or “AM” is defined as “the coordinated activity of an organization to realize value from assets” [ISO 55, 2014 (3.3.1)]. It is an interdisciplinary practice that connects the different parts of an infrastructure-orientated organization to make better decisions – bring together management, finance, engineering, operations, maintenance, planning, and more.

Communities must make sound decisions with scarce resources for both today’s uses and future generations. Planning for infrastructure renewals, growth, and new demands amidst increasing service expectations, risk exposure, compliance requirements, and financial challenges can put elected officials and community staff in a difficult position. AM can help

There are many resources available to help develop an understanding of AM:

• • CNAM’s “New to AM” program, which includes the AM 101 Booklet, webinars, and training sessions.
  • ISO 55000
  • Other national associations and the Regional AM Communities of Practice have developed a range of excellent resources
  • The FCM also holds a library of AM-related resources that can help communities get started.
  • Visit CNAM’s Resources page for links to learning materials and partners.

AMCF Program Goals

The AM Competency Framework was developed to meet four main goals:

1. 1. Provide alignment on the scope of AM, while highlighting the connections between the various professions that overlap with the interdisciplinary practice of AM. These disciplines are represented by the range of national partners involved in the development process.
   2. Establish a shared understanding of the competencies (the knowledge, skills, and behaviours) that a community’s workforce should possess to best deliver their AM programs.
   3. Provide communities with a foundation to identify AM capability gaps and a planning structure to address those gaps with targeted development opportunities.
   4. Provide communities with better information to facilitate hiring qualified candidates in their organization.

The AMCF is not intended to be a ‘how to’ guide for AM practices. There are many other resources available for that. Instead, it details the competencies that staff and contractors should have to successfully carry out those practices. A person possessing these competencies will then be able to support delivery of AM programs and successfully integrate AM practices into organizations.

AMCF Development Process

Original Development (2019-2020)

To develop the AMCF, CNAM brought together the AMCF National Partners, national associations that are involved in supporting the various aspects of AM, community management, and associated industry professions to leverage their collective expertise.

The AMCF National Partners came together to form the AMCF development program’s National Steering Committee (NSC). The NSC met regularly throughout the course of the original development of the AMCF. They provided oversight to the program, ensuring the development remained in line with Program Goals, and addressed and mitigated any issues that arose. Several working groups were also created with volunteers from the AMCF National Partners’ memberships. Each group focused on a different aspect of the AMCF. The working group meetings were held virtually. The groups debated both the bigger picture and finer details of implementing AM in communities across Canada. They reviewed and considered industry best practice and standard methodologies that are being applied across the country.

“This is a great opportunity to help local governments solidify their approach to asset management. We are excited to be a part of it”.

– Shayne Kavanagh, Senior Manager of Research, Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)

The AMCF was a truly collaborative effort, leveraging the collective expertise of CNAM and the AMCF National Partners’ members. AMCF content was developed based on collective decision-making and by consensus where possible. The working groups provided draft text, content suggestions, review and editing, and decision-making. A team from CNAM coordinated the efforts of the working groups and the NSC (the “Program Management Team”). The Program Management Team provided program management, coordination of regular working group sessions, and document drafting, content consolidation, and editing as well. Hundreds of hours of volunteer time, in addition to the resources funded through the FCM MAMP program, were spent developing the AMCF. This process has been a tremendous effort by everyone involved.

The AMCF was originally developed over the course of 2019. A deliberately long draft development and review cycle was used to allow for the framework to be widely reviewed and piloted by the industry before being finalized. The development team utilized an ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’ release schedule to issue working draft versions of the AMCF for review before the final product was made widely available. CNAM and the AMCF National Partners agreed before the program began that the AMCF would be a free, publicly available resource. Anyone working in public-sector AM in Canada can leverage the AMCF to support development of their AM capacity. This benefits both the wider industry and the country as well. CNAM and the AMCF National Partners intend to maintain the NSC to review the adoption of the AMCF and improve or expand it in the future.

The AMCF was also piloted with groups of community staff during the development phases through the creation of two cohorts. These cohort groups of communities were provided basic AM training, an AMCF implementation workshop, regular virtual meetings, and help-desk-based coaching support to apply the AMCF to their organizations. The cohorts also provided the development team feedback on the working releases, which was incorporated into the ongoing development of the document.

• • Alpha Release, May 2019 – the first working release of the framework was issued to the first cohort group in May 2019. An AMCF implementation workshop was held immediately prior to the CNAM 2019 Conference in Kelowna, BC on May 5, 2019.
  • Beta Release, October 2019 – the second working release of the framework was issued on October 1, 2019. It was used by the second cohort in an implementation workshop held in Ontario held that same day. It was also distributed for review and comment to a wider group of industry experts and users, including the country’s Regional AM Communities of Practice, as well as various academic institutions.
  • Version 1.0 Release, February 2020 – with feedback incorporated from the alpha and beta releases, the final version of the AMCF was released to the public at the beginning of 2020. You can download the AMCF version 1.0 document here.

Expanded Development (2020-2021)

In 2020, CNAM and the National Partners began a new round of development of the AMCF, funded by a subsequent round of MAMP funding (MAMP Round 3), and with additional contributions from existing and new Funding Partners. Development in 2020 and 2021 was focused on expanding the existing AMCF content, developing tools and templates to supplement the original and expanded content, and the creation of the AMCF Web Portal.

New content in the AMCF Web Portal includes:

• • A new 13^th AM Competency, the AM Fundamentals competency, encapsulating all of the other 12 AM Competencies, for use by individuals in “AM-adjacent” roles.
  • A new AM Functional Area: Sustainability
  • A full suite of AM Roles for each AM Functional Area, with descriptions of responsibilities and expected competency proficiencies, to help map requirements and build organization-specific AM team roles.
  • A new worksheet to assist in planning organizational implementation of the AM Competency Framework.
  • A completely new section to assist in planning the development of the AM Competencies in individuals, complemented by a new, comprehensive AM Competency Development Planning Tool.
  • Other templates and tools to assist in some common Competency Management Activities, including:
    • • An AM Competency Profile template
      • An AM job posting template
      • A hiring checklist and tip sheet
      • An interview record and evaluation template

(See the Implementation Tools section and the Recruiting and Selection Tools section)