System Engineering Pyramids - The Data Value Pyramid

This is one in a series of Systems Engineering posts I intend to create, and one of several "engineering pyramids" illustrating some key value perspectives.

Many people, and most engineers have sayings like "the right tool for the job", and the way our brains work means that different conceptual frameworks can more easily enable us to process information usefully.  Hopefully, this will be a useful one!

I've long been a fan also of "data value pyramids" and the simple conceptual framework I've used traditionally is action-focused:   Data -> Information -> Knowledge -> Insight -> Action. This has worked pretty well, because without Action we certainly won't make much of a difference to the world!

But sometimes action is misdirected, and mere enthusiastic movement isn't the same as progress.  I think I'll embrace this wisdom and consider "outcome based" assessment of progress instead. Maybe a pyramid like this: 

Some definitions:
- Data is raw information, collected or measured.

- Information is data with some scrubbing and context, organized in some retrievable manner.

- Knowledge is Information that has sufficient structure and understanding to be useful in a repeated or reproduceable manner.  Knowledge often goes with Knowhow -- learned skill in doing things.

- Insight is a novel idea, understanding, or perspective gained through analysis of knowledge and information.

- Action is the application of the new insight to make a deliberate change in a system.  Until an action is taken, the lower levels of the pyramid offer little value beyond vague potential.

- Outcome is an observable change in the system, hopefully as intended.  This where we see value realized.

 

Actions without accurate Insight are perhaps energetic but ineffective, and Actions not driving desired Outcomes are low-value at best (and perhaps counter-productive!).

And this is where the hard part and my personal confession comes in: it's actually not that hard to gain insight, and for street safety we don't even have to do analysis work, as figuring out safety-improvment insights has already been done more than adequately.

What is hard is taking effective action, and there are deliberate forces working to make actions to improve safety NOT work! My hope in posting here is that we won't only collectively embrace Insight, but work together to better take Action...and maybe we'll avoid some busywork that feels like progress but maybe isn't.

Vision Zero states a desired Outcome, but without a policy structure with processes to improve through Actions informed by accurate Insights with support by monitoring to yield additional Data/Info/Knowledge, we probably won't be effective. Let's figure out how to Act deliberately and effectively to achieve our desired Outcomes.!