A body of knowledge (BOK or BoK) is the complete set of concepts, terms and activities that make up a

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who work (human activity), works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the partic ...

domain, as defined by the relevant

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

professional association A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) is a group that usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in ...

.Oliver, G.R. (2012). ''Foundations of the Assumed Business Operations and Strategy Body of Knowledge (BOSBOK): An Outline of Shareable Knowledge'', p. 3. It is a type of

knowledge representation Knowledge representation (KR) aims to model information in a structured manner to formally represent it as knowledge in knowledge-based systems whereas knowledge representation and reasoning (KRR, KR&R, or KR²) also aims to understand, reason, and ...

by any knowledge organization. Several definitions of BOK have been developed, for example: * "Structured

knowledge Knowledge is an Declarative knowledge, awareness of facts, a Knowledge by acquaintance, familiarity with individuals and situations, or a Procedural knowledge, practical skill. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is oft ...

that is used by members of a discipline to guide their practice or work." "The prescribed aggregation of knowledge in a particular area an individual is expected to have mastered to be considered or certified as a practitioner." (BOK-def). * The systematic collection of activities and outcomes in terms of their values, constructs, models, principles and instantiations, which arises from continuous discovery and validation work by members of the profession and enables self-reflective growth and reproduction of the profession (Romme 2016). * A set of accepted and agreed upon standards and nomenclatures pertaining to a field or profession ( INFORMS 2009). * A set of knowledge within a profession or subject area which is generally agreed as both essential and generally known (Oliver 2012). A body of knowledge is the accepted ontology for a specific domain. A BOK is more than simply a collection of terms; a professional reading list; a library; a website or a collection of websites; a description of professional functions; or even a collection of information. A landscape of practice (LoP) refers to a number of related

communities of practice A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by Cognitive anthropology, cognitive anthropolo ...

(CoPs) working on a body of knowledge. Participation in a LoP involves members of the CoPs developing competence in their area of interest and keeping up to date with knowledgeability relevant to the LoP.

Examples

The following are examples of bodies of knowledge from professional organisations: * Business Architecture Body of Knowledge (BIZBOK) from the Business Architecture Guild * Canadian IT Body of Knowledge (CITBOK) – for Canadian Information Processing Society * Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge * Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) – for international

information security Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorized or inappropriate access to data ...

professionals * Data Management Body of Knowledge (DMBOK) – for the profession of

data management Data management comprises all disciplines related to handling data as a valuable resource, it is the practice of managing an organization's data so it can be analyzed for decision making. Concept The concept of data management emerged alongsi ...

from DAMA International, The Global Data Management Community * Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge (EABOK) – for the

enterprise architecture Enterprise architecture (EA) is a business function concerned with the structures and behaviours of a business, especially business roles and processes that create and use business data. The international definition according to the Federation of ...

(EA) discipline * Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (GISTBoK) – for the geospatial realm *

Project Management Body of Knowledge The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a set of standard terminology and guidelines (a body of knowledge) for project management. The body of knowledge evolves over time and is presented in ''A Guide to the Project Management Body ...

(PMBOK) – from the

Project Management Institute The Project Management Institute (PMI, legally Project Management Institute, Inc.) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit professional organization for project management. Overview PMI serves more than five million professionals including over 680,0 ...

(PMI) for project management * Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) – for the profession of software engineering * Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBOK) – for the profession of systems engineering

References

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Examples

See also

References