What is the term for learning gained from historical data that assesses whether past activities achieved desired outcomes?

The term that refers to learning gained from historical data, specifically in the context of evaluating whether past activities achieved their desired outcomes, is knowledge. Knowledge is derived from analyzing information and data over time, enabling individuals or organizations to understand patterns, successes, and failures of previous decisions or projects.

When reflecting on historical data, professionals not only gather data points but also interpret them to draw practical insights and lessons learned. This process transforms raw data into valuable knowledge, which can then inform future planning and decision-making processes. It emphasizes the importance of learning from the past to improve future actions and achieving goals more effectively.

In contrast, data simply refers to raw facts and figures without context or meaning, while information represents processed data that has been organized to provide context. Metrics are quantifiable measures used to assess performance, but they do not inherently imply a learning process from past outcomes. Therefore, knowledge, being the comprehensive understanding derived from analyzing past successes and failures, is the most appropriate term in this context.