Having said why it’s important to get taxonomies right, and what makes a good taxonomy, I should let you know how you can do taxonomy design on your own. In our taxonomy workshops, we facilitate organizations through this design process: Take an inventory. What taxonomies are currently in use by marketing, the marketing website, user communities, […]
Knowledge Representation
The Care and Feeding of Taxonomies, Part 2: What Makes a Good Taxonomy?
Now that we’ve seen why taxonomies are important, it’s time to discover what makes for a good taxonomy. Effective and useful taxonomies have the following properties. Common Across Systems. Many enterprise applications require taxonomies to work properly. Since these enterprise applications are managed by different groups, it’s natural that each taxonomy will start out different and […]
The Care and Feeding of Taxonomies, Part 1: Why Should I Care?
This is the first in a series of four blog posts about taxonomies. In this one, it’s my job to explain why what sounds like an incredibly dry topic really makes a difference. In succeeding posts, I’ll describe what makes a good taxonomy, provide a step-by-step approach to creating yours, and lay out some common […]
