DATA, INFORMATION, AND KNOWLEDGE

With only a slight narrowing of meaning [8], one can say that “data” are the numbers taken directly from measurements. In the hierarchy of knowledge, data provide the firmament, the fundamental basis of all higher applications, and ultimately, one hopes, of decisions.

Data are the basic facts that will be used to begin to understand the project. Valuable data collection begins with an eye toward the triple constraint: cost data, schedule data, and scope data. In managing the project, especially in the execution stage, the project manager requires organized data that reflect the health of the project. These data will facilitate the integration of budget, schedule, and scope. Instead of a single schedule number (e.g., “the project is three weeks ahead of schedule”), the project manager asks for many numbers presented coherently.

The data must therefore be somehow processed, or manipulated. They are organized, given a context. When sufficiently organized, they are considered factual. They have become information because by virtue of their organization they have “informed,” i.e., they have been transported from an isolated existence to reside in some structure where they communicate; they tell a story.

From its beginning in the late 20th century, information technology has enabled rapid communication and analysis of information. Information technology holds the potential to transform 21st-century life, including project management. Quick access to relevant project information should improve the integration of projects. For all but the smallest projects, the project manager should be able to depend on assistants to collect data and begin their transformation into the “information” the project manager needs.

“Knowledge” sits another level up on the hierarchy that has data at its base. Similar to the manner in which data are transformed into information, information can be transformed into knowledge. This transformation process is, however, more formal. Information is codified, and so its context is determined with more structure than the corresponding data transformation (to information). With this formality, knowledge is seen as the intellectual perception of information. [8] Knowledge of a project may also include a subjective judgment based on objective information.

Managing projects in an integrated manner means managing information. But will this recognition and deeper understanding change behavior? Placing project management number-crunching in this framework implies that project managers and their hierarchical superiors should provide conditions that encourage, at a minimum, sharing data to improve project integration. Even better conditions encourage communications that turn shared data into information. Information should be shared within and across projects and programs.

With much additional effort, the shared information can be filtered, sharpened, archived, and made accessible to all in the organization. In other words, the information should be transformed into knowledge. From the perspective of knowledge management, effecting this transformation is the major objective of an organization’s project management office. Business strategists see knowledge as the basis upon which modern organizations grow and prosper. Establishing this process takes resources, and maintaining the culture requires a commitment from senior management.

Furthermore, the commitment can be expanded to communicate new knowledge to the project management profession as a whole. The Project Management Institute has recognized this responsibility for its members (e.g., in its Role Delineation Study, 24). Professions advance as their practitioners replace standard practices with best practices. This large-scale professional maturation can occur only if the best practices are distilled and communicated.

New knowledge does not help current or future projects succeed until the knowledge is utilized. Utilization begins with understanding, which sometimes requires bringing together heretofore disparate pieces of knowledge. This ability to create understanding through synthesis resides in people, and a good project manager wants people on the project team who can acquire, understand, organize, and utilize knowledge—or, in Leibniz’s terms, who can integrate.

Disparate pieces of knowledge can best be understood and integrated by a team with multiple perspectives (discussed in Chapter 5). This very diversity can make integration difficult at the start, but with perseverance team members will see different areas in which this new, integrated knowledge can be applied. A team with secure members will share the knowledge, expanding the number of personnel aware of it. Workers will then be able to use this knowledge to solve problems in projects that further the organization’s goals. In the course of solving problems, new data, information, and knowledge will be gained, and the cycle can continue (see Figure 2-1, Knowledge Management Cycle for Integration Management).

Managing and motivating this process does not occur in a vacuum. Acquisition of data and information—and the subsequent transformation of information into knowledge—require resources. An organization with a commitment to solving problems and managing projects well allows its personnel time to acquire and understand information. It also give them the tools to do so, and where necessary, provides training. The cycle might be summarized as: generate (data); transform (into information); transform again (into knowledge); document; archive; make accessible; communicate; train. Although not mandatory, often a project management office is used for the latter four functions, as depicted in Figure 2-1.

But when the speed of modern business is sometimes described with the phrase “Internet time” to reflect its quickness, can a project team always afford to wait for knowledge? In the short term, insight is even better than the standard production and utilization of knowledge: Insight permits a quantum jump from data to utilization without dawdling at information and perhaps skipping even knowledge. This jump is often termed “innovation,” and it cannot easily exist without the ready availability of shared data.