PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act, formerly also PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Action) and is number 5 of the 14 points of the management programme according to Deming. In Germany, PDCA stands for continuous planning, implementation, control and correction, or improvement of the management programme. More precisely, "P" stands for the planning of the improvement, "D" for the execution of the improvement measure, "C" for the review of the effectiveness and "A" for the implementation, standardisation or adaptation.