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 Knowledge organization (KO), organization of knowledge, organization of information, or information organization is an intellectual discipline concerned with activities such as document description, indexing, and classification that serve to ...

. 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 The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often s ...

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 William M. Ulrich (born c. 1956) is an American business architecture consultant, consultant at Cutter Consortium, director and lecturer, known for development of 'The Systems Redevelopment Methodology' (TSRM) in the 1990s, on legacy systems in th ...

* Canadian IT Body of Knowledge (CITBOK) – for

Canadian Information Processing Society CIPS (Canadian Information Processing Society) is the professional association of IT professionals in Canada. Since 1958 CIPS has helped strengthen the Canadian IT industry by establishing standards and sharing best practices for the benefit of ind ...

* Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge *

Common Body of Knowledge Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Commo ...

(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 Data Management Association (DAMA), formerly known as the Data Administration Management Association, is a global not-for-profit organization which aims to advance concepts and practices about information management and data management. It des ...

, 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 __NOTOC__ The Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (GISTBoK) is a reference document produced by the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS) as the first product of its Model Curricula project, s ...

(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 The Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK ( )) refers to the collective knowledge, skills, techniques, methodologies, best practices, and experiences accumulated within the field of software engineering over time. A baseline for this body ...

(SWEBOK) – for the profession of software engineering *

Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge The Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK), formally known as ''Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge,'' is a wiki-based collection of key knowledge sources and references for systems engineering Systems engineering is an in ...

(SEBOK) – for the profession of systems engineering

References

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Examples

See also

References