The Point of Knowledge
Excerpted from Business Rule Concepts: Getting to the Point of Knowledge (4th ed, 2013), by Ronald G. Ross, 162 pp, http://www.brsolutions.com/b_concepts.php
For me the point of knowledge (POK) is a real place. POK is where elements of operational business know-how — business rules — are developed, applied, assessed, re-used, and ultimately retired. In other words, POK is where business rules happen. Knowledge is power, so you can also think about POK as point of empowerment.
POK corresponds to point of sale (POS) in the world of commerce. POK and POS are similar in several ways:
- In both, something is exchanged. In POS, it’s goods. In POK, it’s operational business know-how (from here on I’ll just say know-how).
- In the world of commerce, we often say that consumer and supplier are parties in point-of-sale events. Each of us is a consumer in some point-of-sale events, and many of us act as suppliers in others. The same is true for POK. Each of us is a consumer of know-how in some POK events, and many of us act as suppliers in others. Sometimes we switch roles within minutes or even seconds.
- A well-engineered experience at the point of sale has obvious benefits both for the consumer — a positive buying experience — and for the business of the supplier — real-time intelligence about sales volume, cash flow, buying trends, inventory depletion, consumer profiles, etc. A well-engineered experience at the POK likewise has obvious benefits. For the consumer, it means a positive learning experience. For the business of the supplier, the benefits include real-time intelligence about the ‘hit’ rate of business rules, patterns of evolving consumer (and supplier) behavior, emergence of compliance risks, etc.
Nonetheless, your company’s know-how is very real. What do I mean by know-how? MWUD says:
Today, much of your know-how is tacit — lose the people, you lose the know-how they carry in their heads. How can you avoid that? Make the know-how explicit as business rules. That’s what POK are about.
Critical success factors in engineering an effective POK include:
know-how: accumulated practical skill or expertness … especially: technical knowledge, ability, skill, or expertness of this sort
- Communication must be strictly in the language of the business, not IT.
- Interaction must be gauged to the knowledge level (and authorization) of each individual party.
- Less-experienced parties playing the consumer role must be enabled to perform as closely as possible to the level of the company’s most experienced workers.
- Know-how — business rules — must be presented and applied in a succinct, highly-selective fashion.
- Know-how — business rules — must be presented and applied in a timely fashion (i.e., ‘just-in-time’) to accommodate fast-paced refinement and change in business policies and practices.
Tags: events, know-how, knowledge, knowledge economy, knowledge engineering, point of knowledge, point of sale, POK, POS
Ronald G. Ross
Ron Ross, Principal and Co-Founder of Business Rules Solutions, LLC, is internationally acknowledged as the “father of business rules.” Recognizing early on the importance of independently managed business rules for business operations and architecture, he has pioneered innovative techniques and standards since the mid-1980s. He wrote the industry’s first book on business rules in 1994.