The Shewhart Cycle (also known as the PDCA) is an iterative design and management cycle for continuous quality improvement of products and processes. It is named after Walter Shewhart who is known as the father of statistical quality control. The more recent name, PDCA, has several variations in the literature. The PDCA or Shewhart Cycle consists of four parts:

• • Plan
  • Do
  • Check
  • Act

Similarly, the OODA Loop is an iterative framework for the improvement and management of decision processes. It is used in various domains such as business, litigation, and military strategy. The OODA Loop consists of four parts:

• • Observe
  • Orient
  • Decide
  • Act

Learning Cycles are similar to Design Cycles in that the process to be improved is learning and the product to be improved is knowledge. It would be interesting to compare the two types of cycles to understand their similarities and differences. Some of each type have four stages but others have more or less. I have mentioned several learning cycles with four steps already in this blog, the Kolb learning cycle and the Scientific Method.

Further Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_A._Shewhart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continual_improvement_process

https://www.praxisframework.org/en/library/shewhart-cycle

https://www.google.com/search?q=PDCA+cycle&tbm=isch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_cycle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop

https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/OODA-loop

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_cycle

https://www.google.com/search?q=learning+cycles+and+design+cycles+compared&tbm=isch

[*6.54]

<>