Plan Do Check Act

This is a structured implementation of the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) continuous improvement cycle. You define a problem with measurable baselines, test a hypothesis with a small change, measure the results, then either standardize what worked or adjust and iterate. The examples show realistic scenarios like reducing Docker build times from 45 to 4.5 minutes over two cycles, where the first iteration hit the target but revealed a new bottleneck. It's most useful when you have a specific problem to solve and want to avoid the trap of making too many changes at once without knowing what actually worked. The framework forces you to document everything and set concrete success criteria, which sounds tedious but pays off when you're on cycle three trying to remember why you made certain decisions.