This template documents who will collect what data, when and how for each improvement measure.

How to use it

This template can be used to describe details for data that will be collected for each measure proposed for an improvement project:

1. Who will collect data?
2. What data will they collect?  Are these data attributes (yes/no, categories) or variables? (measured numerical data such as height, weight, time taken)
3. Where will they collect the data?
4. When will they collect the data? (frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) and if part of existing process at what step?)
5. How will the data be recorded?  Is there an existing source? (be specific)
6. Will we count every event or take a sample? If sampling how will we choose the sample?
7. What are the stratifiers? (if any) (stratifiers are subdivisions of data that reflect known differences in the process (for example by diagnostic group, day v night shift)
8. What analytical tools do we plan to use?
9. How will data be presented? What types of tables and charts?
10. Who will do the analyses and create the charts? (Same person for both activities?)
11. Who will receive the results?  How often will they receive them?

What next?

The data collection plan template can be downloaded here.