In 2006, after a long career of community service, Peter Way PSM, retired after 27 years spent at Logan City Council. He continued his contributions to the profession at IPWEA for another 11 years as Chair of the NAMS Council. He subsequently represented IPWEA on the ISO Technical Committee 251, becoming convenor of its finance working group. Below, Peter gives a history of his achievements and the progression of asset management priorities and resources.

Words by: Peter Way

Most of my career has been in civil engineering infrastructure provision in local government, giving me an appreciation of the need to match the services being provided with the needs of the community and their ability to pay for such – a good grounding for recognising the importance of asset management.

Managing assets is about making sure we are focused on not just building the necessary new infrastructure, but also managing existing resources; renewing and maintaining them to ensure service demands will continue to be met.

I have been fortunate to have had significant involvement with the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia (IPWEA) over much of my working life, including being National President. So, it was a natural fit that after I “retired” from full-time employment as Director of City Works at Logan City Council in SE Queensland, I took on the role as Chair of IPWEA’s National Asset Management Strategy in 2006. This included oversight of developing resources to help asset management practitioners.

Australia and New Zealand have been at the forefront of embracing accrual accounting for infrastructure management, particularly in the local government sector, dating back to the 1990s. This provided great impetus to promote the need for stewardship by elected officials  to ensure that long-term financial resources are being provided. A lot of our efforts at IPWEA have been along these lines of developing resources, such as the International Infrastructure Management Manual (IIMM), various Practice Notes, the Australian Infrastructure Financial Management Manual (AIFMM), training programs, and tertiary education courses in asset management.

Interestingly, early versions of the IIMM were, in part, a genesis for the development of asset management standard PAS 55 which led to developing an ISO suite of asset management standards.

So, with a move towards the ISO AM Standards in 2010, I was immediately keen to be involved as the IPWEA representative on the Standards Australia Mirror Committee. With my experience from Australia in seeing the need to get stronger collaboration between the engineering and accounting professions in asset management, I promoted the need for this to be addressed in the ISO 55000 series. That led to my taking a lead role for Working Groups in ISO TC 251 on finance matters.

In my role as Convenor for WG5 (Finance) for TC 251 since 2015, I have been blessed to be able to work with a large group of like-minded experts who shared a passion for advancing the concepts of better aligning the financial and technical functions in asset management. This has culminated in various articles on this topic and a seminal piece of work, being the Technical Specification ISO 55010, about to be published. There are plenty of ongoing challenges to be faced by WG5 to continue to develop stronger linkages for finance implications associated with asset management. This will be particularly important for TC 251 as we move towards review and revision of ISO 55001.

With the completion of the TS 55010, I have taken the opportunity to hand over the reins of Convenorship for WG5. I have thoroughly enjoyed my ten-year involvement with the ISO TC 251 group of worldwide experts and value the many friendships made. For me, I am looking forward to spending some more time with my long-suffering family and pursuing some of my hobbies like sailing, golf and very amateur-like guitar playing. I will continue to watch with interest the ongoing work of TC 251 in advancing the ISO asset management standards and wish all involved all the very best.

IPWEA extends its thanks and best wishes to Peter in retirement. You can read about the TC251 activities here.