PDSA Improvement cycle graphic from my book – Management Matters

Using the PDSA cycle (plan-do-study-act) well is critical to building a effective management system. This post provides some resources to help use the improvement cycle well.

I have several posts on this blog about using the PDSA cycle to improve results including:

• keys to the effective use of the PDSA cycle
• Richard Feynman Explains the PDSA Cycle
• Tom Nolan on the PDSA cycle

The authors and consultants with Associates for Process Improvement have the greatest collection of useful writing on the topic. They wrote two indispensable books on the process improvement through experimentation: The Improvement Guide and Quality Improvement Through Planned Experimentation. And they have written numerous excellent articles, including:

• Clearing Up Myths About the Deming Cycle by Ron Moen and Cliff Norman
• The Importance of Concepts in Creativity and Improvement by Lloyd Provost and Gerald Langley
• ASQ’s Accelerating Change Collaborative Series: A Challenge for Industry by Kevin Nolan
• Evolution of the PDSA Cycle by Ron Moen and Cliff Norman
• Understanding Variation by Thomas Nolan, Lloyd Provost

Related: Good Process Improvement Practices – The Art of Discovery (George Box) – Planning requires prediction. Prediction requires a theory. (Ron Moen)