Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) is a four-stage problem-solving model that teams may use to improve a process or make a practice change. PDSA encourages your team to make changes in small, testable cycles. Watch the video below for an overview of the PDSA model. After watching the video and reviewing the PDSA primer, please proceed to the Preparation page of the PDSA toolkit.
Need a handy one-page summary of the Plan-Do-Study-Act model? Use the PDSA primer to keep track of key factors to consider during each step of the PDSA cycle.
The PDSA form is the most important tool in this toolbox. Your team will use this tool on every PDSA cycle to formulate a testable hypothesis, organize your test and measurement plans, and assess whether the tested change led to an improvement. If you are new to testing and measuring change using the PDSA model, see the Plan: Problem Exploration & Test Selection section of this toolkit for instructions before using this form.
The PDSA Toolkit is brought to you through partnership between the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and the Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional Development System