PDCA Cycles

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act), also known as the Deming Cycle, is a four-phase iterative framework for structured continuous improvement. ProBeya's PDCA module provides a digital workspace for managing improvement cycles from problem statement through standardization, with full traceability and action linkage.

Unlike ad-hoc improvements, PDCA enforces a disciplined approach: define the problem and plan (Plan), implement the change (Do), verify results against expectations (Check), and standardize or adjust (Act).

Overview

Many improvement efforts fail because teams jump straight to solutions without understanding root causes, or they implement changes without verifying effectiveness. The PDCA module solves this by enforcing a linear phase progression that ensures each step is completed before moving to the next.

Getting Started

1. Navigate to your board and open the PDCA panel.
2. Click New Cycle to create a PDCA improvement cycle.
3. Enter a title, description, and optionally assign an owner.
4. The cycle starts in the Plan phase — document your problem analysis and hypothesis.
5. When ready, advance to Do to begin implementation.
6. Continue advancing through Check and Act phases until completion.

How It Works

Phase Progression

PDCA cycles progress through five sequential states:

Plan --> Do --> Check --> Act --> Completed

Phase	Purpose	Typical Content
Plan	Identify the problem, analyze root causes, define the hypothesis	Problem statement, root cause analysis, target condition, action plan
Do	Execute the plan on a small scale	Implementation notes, pilot results, observations
Check	Compare results against the plan	Data analysis, variance report, lessons learned
Act	Standardize if successful, or adjust and restart	Standard work updates, training plan, or revised hypothesis
Completed	Terminal state — cycle is finished	Summary and archived

Phase advancement is intentionally one-directional. You cannot skip phases or go backwards. This ensures the integrity of the improvement methodology. Attempting to advance beyond "completed" returns an error.

Flexible completeness

ProBeya does not enforce that all fields in a phase are populated before advancing. Teams decide when a phase is "good enough" to move forward, preserving the pragmatic spirit of Lean.

Phase Content

Each phase has a dedicated content area stored as structured JSONB in the database. The content fields (planContent, doContent, checkContent, actContent) accept rich structured data and can be updated at any time while the cycle is in that phase or later for documentation purposes.

Content can be pre-populated during cycle creation by providing planContent in the create input, allowing templates or automated workflows to seed the Plan phase with relevant data.

Action Linkage

PDCA cycles can be linked to action items via the linkActions procedure. This creates an informational association between the cycle and the action items that implement its improvements. Key characteristics:

• The linkage uses a JSONB array of action IDs (linkedActionIds) — no foreign key constraints
• Each call to linkActions replaces the entire linked actions list (not a merge)
• Invalid action IDs are silently accepted; they simply won't resolve in the UI
• The link is bidirectional in the UI: actions show their linked PDCA cycles and vice versa

Listing and Filtering

Cycles are listed per board with optional filtering:

Filter	Description
boardId	Required — which ProBeya board to list cycles for
phase	Optional — only cycles in a specific phase (plan, do, check, act, completed)
limit	Pagination: results per page (default 50, max 200)
offset	Pagination: offset for cursor-based navigation

Results include a total count and hasMore flag for pagination UI. Cycles are sorted by creation date descending (most recent first).

Activity Audit Trail

All PDCA mutations are logged via the logActivity helper for audit trail compliance:

Action	Logged Metadata
Cycle created	Title, board ID, initial phase
Cycle updated	Title, list of changed field names
Cycle deleted	Title (captured before deletion)
Phase advanced	Title, from-phase, to-phase
Actions linked	Action IDs array, count

This is critical in pharma environments where every change must be traceable to an actor, timestamp, and context.

Configuration

PDCA cycles are scoped to a board. Each cycle belongs to exactly one board and one organization. The cycle owner can be set to any user in the organization. Board membership is verified during cycle creation to prevent creating cycles on boards in other tenants.

Permissions

Action	Required Role
Create a cycle	Any board member
Update cycle content	Cycle owner or board manager
Advance phase	Cycle owner or board manager
Link actions	Cycle owner or board manager
Delete a cycle	Board admin
View cycles	Any board member

API Reference

Procedure	Type	Description
pdca.create	Mutation	Create a new PDCA cycle on a board
pdca.update	Mutation	Partial update of cycle fields and content
pdca.delete	Mutation	Delete a PDCA cycle
pdca.getById	Query	Get a single cycle with full details
pdca.list	Query	List cycles with filters and pagination
pdca.advancePhase	Mutation	Move to the next phase in the sequence
pdca.linkActions	Mutation	Replace the linked action IDs array

Tips & Best Practices

Start small

Use PDCA for focused, time-boxed improvements rather than large transformation programs. A good PDCA cycle should complete within 2-4 weeks.

Document the Check phase thoroughly

The Check phase is where learning happens. Record not just whether the improvement worked, but why it did or did not, and what was unexpected.

Link actions for traceability

Always link the action items generated during the Plan phase back to the PDCA cycle. This creates a clear audit trail from problem identification to resolution.

Related Features

• Kaizen Ideas — Kaizen submissions can spawn PDCA cycles for larger improvements
• Action Log — link action items to PDCA cycles for implementation tracking
• Problem Solving — structured root cause analysis feeds into the Plan phase
• KPI Boards — verify improvement impact during the Check phase