Workers and coaches steadily look for ways to tweak the production process for greater efficiency.
Average turnout, which has gone down steadily since 1979, looks like falling again.
So last week, when the settlement talks -- which had begun in earnest in October and had seemed to be moving slowly but steadily -- looked as if they might stall, regulators decided that they needed to make Wall Street firms understand that they would not allow further delays.
Just as consumer app interest has grown very steadily, it looks like interest in other areas has been significantly more choppy.
And that picture is looking steadily worse.
The incumbent number one keeper at Philadelphia, Zac MacMath, has been steadily improving after looking shaky early in his Philadelphia career, but the move puts the pressure back on him, even if Blake still lacks experience.
The girls asked no questions about where we were going, each looking steadily out the back windows, the journey brief enough that the lack of conversation did not feel strange.
However, with security deteriorating and the economy failing to perform to its potential, the record of Mr Bouteflika's first two terms is looking steadily less impressive, and there are some indications that powerful figures in the military and political establishment are looking for an alternative preferably someone who will take a more resolute line on AQIM.
Certain sitters do stand out: the self-possessed child keenly focused on Hockney, sketchbook in his lap like a rival young artist; the big form of Bing McGilvray, who appears three times, easy in his chair and in the artist's company, his generosity shining through; Hockney's sister Margaret, looking steadily back at her brother as he works.
