A body of knowledge is a collection of concepts, information, and activities for a professional group, organized into a book or online library. It represents diverse groups and is researched and approved by the organization. It falls under knowledge organization and representation and is updated regularly. However, it may not reflect real-time changes and can hinder innovation and self-learning.
A body of knowledge is the total amount of concepts, information, activities and documentation of an organization or professional group. Information is reduced to a book, resource, or online library for reference by members of that group or organization. This information includes all terminology. It can be abbreviated to BoK or Bok and represents groups as diverse as surveyors, doctors and masseuses.
Knowledge represents the state of knowing something. This information can be acquired through experience or through learning. There is some debate as to whether learned experience really counts as knowledge or not, as the information is purely theoretical. A body of knowledge, such as an encyclopedia, aims to capture as much information and knowledge as possible for the benefit of all readers.
Building a body of knowledge is a form of library and information science (LIS). This falls into two major subdivisions of information management: knowledge organization and knowledge representation. The first concerns the way information is recorded, indexed and grouped. The latter pertains to how information is presented to readers; if it’s easy to understand, it makes sense. Format, such as books, files and web pages, is also a matter of knowledge representation.
A diverse range of professional and academic groups use a body of knowledge to organize themselves. It is often used by specific professional groups such as lawyers, doctors and surveyors; often broken down by specialization or location. It is used to represent professions such as software engineers and therapists. A body of knowledge can also be devised by a university or university department. They have also been compiled for notions and concepts such as project management, infrastructure regulation, and corporate governance.
Each body of knowledge is researched by members of the professional body and approved by its governmental or member organization. Such publications may be made available to members free of charge, placed online, or, more commonly, sold in book form. No profession is static and neither is information. These books of knowledge are updated at regular intervals to take into account new regulations, techniques, ideas and laws.
The Association of Project Management (APM) body of knowledge book is a case in point. It is divided into a number of relevant subsections. These subsections include strategy execution, strategy planning, project management in context, and governance. Such bodies of knowledge serve as a practical guide or reference manual and are useful to new or old members.
The possible problem with a body of knowledge is that it is not updated in real time. This means that ever-changing laws and techniques won’t appear until the next update in x number of years. They can also be over-relied upon to the detriment of innovation and self-learning through experience.
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