From Software Experience Databases to Learning Organizations

Knowledge is use of facts, truths or principles from studies or investigations. That is, the available information must be made operational for (“learned” by) the person or group in question. Thus, information is not automatically knowledge. Explicit knowledge is what can be formalized, e.g. as process models or guidelines in a quality system. Tacit knowledge is the operational skills among practitioners, including practical judgement capabilities (e.g. intuition). We can also distinguish between ease of transfer of local vs. global knowledge, and between ease of use of programmable (often explicit) vs. unique (often tacit) knowledge: