PDSA cycle

Overview

The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle is used to help conceptualise the process of continuous, and iterative, improvement.

The model ensures impacts of incremental improvement actions are monitored, measured, learned from, and responded to in appropriate ways.

The four stages of the cycle are show in the following table.

Stages of a project	Description
Plan	Plan the improvement activity. Plan ahead for change.
Do	Carry out improvements or change according to plan.
Study	Measure, monitor and study the results of the improvement or change activity.
Act	Take appropriate action to adapt the improvement or change. Learning from the experience should be incorporated into planning new activities.

The PDSA cycle is sometimes also described as a spiral to emphasize the repetition of stages in the cycle.