VCU Performance Management Group Helps Aviation Department Earn Certification

In its two-decade history, the Virginia Commonwealth University Performance Management Group has been a part of many firsts while helping organizations develop strategies for enhanced performance. Its most recent accomplishment was another first: helping the Virginia Department of Aviation become the first state aviation agency in the nation to receive ISO 9001:2008 certification.

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is the largest standards-developing organization in the world, dating to 1947. Organizations that attain certification demonstrate streamlined structuring of procedures, planning and management among other rigorous criteria.

In addition to the status that comes with ISO certification, the process allows organizations to run more efficiently, as well as representing huge cost savings, says James M. Burke, Ph.D., director of the PMG, part of the Center for Public Policy in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs.

“It helps agencies save money, perform their mission better and be much more efficient in these lean times,” Burke said.