Active Knowledge in Software Development
stayrelevant.globant.com
stayrelevant.globant.com
Fyi... 3 previous writings using different terminology that's related to what the blog author calls "knowledge activation perspective" :
- "tacit knowledge" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacit_knowledge
- Fred Brooks 1975 book Mythical Man-Month called it "conceptual integrity" : https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/dcs/research/em/teaching/cs405...
- Peter Naur 1985 paper "Programming as Theory Building" : https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/Naur.pdf
Active knowledge appears to be the kind of knowledge that someone gains from recently having worked on something, which fades after you don't work on it for a while. Annoyingly, the author doesn't provide a concrete example of what they mean but I interpret it to be something like fast recall of the finer or subtler details about the system. For example, "ah, that error code usually means your VPN has disconnected itself".
Tacit knowledge is intuitive knowledge that's difficult to express in simple terms. For example, being good at creating novel algorithms to solve difficult data problems. Some of it can be learned from a guide but a lot comes down to naturally just "seeing" a solution. I suppose that having a large amount of active knowledge might correlate with having tacit knowledge.
Conceptual integrity is a property of a system rather than a person. It's to do with how coherent the design and functionality of the system is. Not really sure how this relates to the above. I suppose you could say that a well-designed system does not require as much tacit knowledge to operate?
Programming as theory building is about how the programmer builds an internal model of how a system operates. Again not really sure how it ties in with active knowledge, although I can see that one's internal model might gradually fade over time.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2635068?origin=JSTOR-pdf
Apart of that, programming/software is 5-th(?)/most-recent knowledge-storage/medium, so anything about knowledge applies there as well, maybe some aspects more than others.
The other three seem indeed closely related to implicit knowledge.
"Programming as Theory Building" argues that tacit Knowledge always precedes the activity of coding (in both importance and time) [0]. So, this theory is pointing to how fundamental "personal tacit knowledge" is to knowledge work (like coding)
"Conceptual integrity" describes the idea of "resonant minds" [1]. How do resonant minds communicate their knowledge so easily and fluently? is it because they share an implicit mental space where they can easily "get it" ? So this theory is maybe (implicitly ?) pointing to how much efficient "collective tacit knowledge" is (in small teams)
Nonaka's Theory (cited in this thread) is more ambitious as it describes a general process by which knowledge grows though interaction in organizations [2] : a continuous dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge.
[0] a programmer’s main activity isn’t coding, it’s creating a theory of the problem at hand and its solution. This theory is implicit knowledge.
[1] Conceptual integrity in turn dictates that the design must proceed from one mind, or from a very small number of agreeing resonant mind
[2] Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation
When a big development case is closed out, get a brain dump: the TC (technical communicator) should jump on the implementer(s) and suck their brains dry. Or something to that effect.
“Qualities of Active Knowledge [:]
Active Knowledge is generated in interaction with a system.
…
Knowledge fades over time.
…
Knowledge can go stale.
…
Knowledge can be more easily regenerated if artifacts are clear and understandable.
…
Uncovered knowledge can enhance decision-making.
…”