RE: PDS(C)A

["Ivan Webb" <Ivan.Webb@bigpond.com>]

I understand Ted Davies when he wrote... 'I have a different kind of
hang-up: How can one Plan before one has Studied?'  Studying is the
beginning of improvement. On the other hand I would not support a change
(although his suggested list 'SPIRA, that is Study, Plan, Implement, Review,
Administer makes sense).

For me, PDSA is simply a useful aid to our thinking about continuous
improvement. In my experience the 'steps' are not so much a sequence of
isolated tasks but rather a set of overlapping complex tasks where the
emphasis tends to change in the order: plan-do-study-act.  The meanings of
the words depend on the matter being addressed.

The overlap was illustrated by a staff member who (when we were walking back
from our school's swimming carnival) excitedly asked: "'Are we going to have
a 'post-mortem?' " She had been studying the carnival while it was in
progress and wanted to compare notes with the rest of the staff in order to
(act) ensure that next year's carnival would be better.

Ivan Webb