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Governance, Risk, Audit & Privacy · Foundational

Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

Iterative four-step management cycle for continual improvement: plan, do, check, act.

Definition

PDCA, also called the Deming cycle, underlies ISO management system standards. Plan establishes objectives and processes, Do implements them, Check monitors and measures results, and Act takes improvement actions. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 no longer explicitly names PDCA but its clause structure reflects it.

Example

After an internal audit (Check) finds weak access reviews, the team updates the procedure (Act).

Exam tip

Internal audit and management review correspond to Check.

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