In the PDSA cycle, what does the Plan phase involve?

• A. Identifying a goal, formulating an intervention, defining success metrics, and planning actions
• B. Implementing the plan
• C. Reviewing outcomes only after a year
• D. Reallocating resources to unrelated projects

Answer: (A)

The Plan phase centers on turning an idea into a concrete, testable plan. It involves setting a clear goal, selecting the intervention you’ll try, deciding how you’ll measure success, and outlining the actions, responsibilities, timelines, and data you’ll collect. This sets up the test so you can see whether the change leads to improvement.

Implementing the plan happens in the next step, not here. Reviewing outcomes after a long period isn’t how PDSA works either—you look at data from the test promptly to decide what to adjust. Reallocating resources to unrelated projects isn’t part of planning the specific test.