The PDCA workflow - the backbone of project management

The most significant workflow in every stream of management is the PDCA -  Plan, Do, Check and Act workflow defined by the quality guru Deming. 

In a nutshell, whatever we want to do must be planned first. Then the work must be executed as per the plan. Periodically the status of work must be checked. If there is a variance, action must be taken to correct those variations.

In project management the multiple PDCA cycles happen one after the other and sometimes even in parallel. We can see PDCA happening at the project level and at every knowledge area level like;

Requirements collection

Scope definition

Schedule development

Cost management

Quality management

Risk management

Procurement management

Communications management

Resource management

Stakeholder management

Project integration management

Each one of the above aspects need to be Planned, Executed, Monitored and Controlled (PDCA).

Hence, project management can be seen as a constellation of PDCA cycles working in tandem, from the start of the project till its completion.