Changing Software Development: Learning to Become Agile

3.1. The Difference between Knowledge and Information

In everyday language data, information and knowledge tend to be interchangeable terms. Many dictionaries define each one in terms of the others. However, if there's no difference between these terms, what's the point of having three different words?

In fact, there are many more words that we could consider: wisdom, skills, intelligence, proficiency and facts, just to name a few. We could subdivide the whole concept of knowledge and information into even smaller chunks and ever increasing subtlety. It is possible to define a three-way division – data, information and knowledge – that's both useful and succinct, but we still need to distinguish between these three terms. We start with the working definitions provided by two of the leading writers on the subject of knowledge, Davenport and Prusak:^[]

^[] See Davenport and Prusak (2000)

• Data claims to be some objective facts about events.

• Information is a message intended to change the receiver's perception of something: it is the receiver rather than the sender who decides what the message means.

• Knowledge is a fluid concept, incorporating experience, values and the context that exists inside an individual's mind or in the processes and norms of an organization.

Another leading writer on the subject of knowledge is Ikujiro Nonaka; he assigns three attributes to knowledge:^[]

^[] See Nonaka and Tekeuchi(1995).

• Knowledge is about beliefs and commitment: it is a function of perspective and ...