1. Taxonomy Development Case Studies
Tom Reamy Chief Knowledge Architect
KAPS Group
Knowledge Architecture Professional Services

2. Agenda Introduction Development Process – Examples
Tale of Two Taxonomies – Best of Times and Worst of Times
Conclusion

3. Taxonomy Development Process
Foundation – Strategic & Business Context
Focus Groups, contextual interviews
Knowledge Architecture Audit – Knowledge Map
Taxonomy Strategy/Model – forms, technology, people
Existing taxonomic resources, software
Draft Taxonomy
Information Interviews, focus groups, card sorts
Content Analysis, top down & bottom up
Refine, feedback, pilot app
Taxonomy Plans – Governance, Maintenance, Applications

4. Knowledge Architecture Audit: Knowledge Map
Project Foundation
Contextual Interviews
Information
Interviews
App/Content
Catalog
User Survey
Strategy
Document
Meetings, work groups
Overview
High Level:
Process
Community
Info behaviors of Business processes
Technology and content
All 4 dimensions
General Outline
Broad Context
Deep Details
Complete Picture
New
Foundation

5. Taxonomy Development Process: Progressive Refinement
Taxonomy Model
Information
Interviews
Content Analysis
Refine
Map Community
Governance Plan
Buy/Find work groups
Overview
Info behaviors, Card Sorts
Bottom Up Prototypes
Interviews Evaluate
Refine Interviews
Develop, Refine
General Outline
Preliminary Taxonomy
Taxonomy 1.0
Taxonomy
Tax 2.0
Taxonomy

6. Taxonomy Development: Tips and Techniques Foundation
Strategic Foundation
Info Problems – what, how severe
Political environment – support, special interests
Knowledge Architecture Audit – Self Knowledge
Size, Major Org, Info environment
Strategic Questions – why, what value from the taxonomy, how are you going to use it
Technology Environment – ECM, Enterprise Search

7. Taxonomy Development: Tips and Techniques Taxonomy Foundation
Variety of taxonomies – important to know the differences, when to use what.
People: Get a good taxonomist! (Assign resources, learn)
Library Science+ Cognitive Science + Cognitive Anthropology
Technology
Taxonomy Management, Visulaization
Entity Extraction
Content Structures: Get a good taxonomy!
Glossary, Index, Pull from multiple sources
Get a good document collection

8. Infrastructure Solutions: Taxonomy Development Taxonomy Model
Enterprise Taxonomy
No single subject matter taxonomy
Need an ontology of facets or domains
Standards and Customization
Balance of corporate communication and departmental specifics
At what level are differences represented?
Customize pre-defined taxonomy – additional structure, add synonyms and acronyms and vocabulary
Enterprise Facet Model:
Actors, Events, Functions, Locations, Objects, Information Resources
Combine and map to subject domains

9. Combination of top down and bottom up (and Essences)
Taxonomy Development: Tips and Techniques Development and/or Customization
Combination of top down and bottom up (and Essences)
Top: Design an ontology, facet selection
Bottom: Vocabulary extraction – documents, search logs, interview authors and users
Develop essential examples (Prototypes)
Most Intuitive Level – genus (oak, maple, rabbit)
Quintessential Chair – all the essential characteristics, no more
Work toward the prototype and out and up and down
Repeat until dizzy or done
Map the taxonomy to communities and activities
Category differences
Vocabulary differences

10. Taxonomy Development: Tips and Techniques Evaluate and Refine
Formal Evaluation
Quality of corpus – size, homogeneity, representative
Breadth of coverage – main ideas, outlier ideas (see next)
Structure – balance of depth and width
Kill the verbs
Evaluate speciation steps – understandable and systematic
Person – Unwelcome person – Unpleasant person - Selfish person
Avoid binary levels, duplication of contrasts
Primary and secondary education, public and private

11. Taxonomy Development: Tips and Techniques Evaluate and Refine
Practical Evaluation
Test in real life application
Select representative users and documents
Test node labels with Subject Matter Experts
Balance of making sense and jargon
Test with representative key concepts
Test for un-representative strange little concepts that only mean something to a few people but the people and ideas are key and are normally impossible to find

12. Enterprise Environment – Case Studies
A Tale of Two Taxonomies
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
Basic Approach
Initial meetings – project planning
High level K map – content, people, technology
Contextual and Information Interviews
Content Analysis
Draft Taxonomy – validation interviews, refine
Integration and Governance Plans

13. Enterprise Environment – Case One – Taxonomy, 7 facets
Taxonomy of Subjects / Disciplines:
Science > Marine Science > Marine microbiology > Marine toxins
Facets:
Organization > Division > Group
Clients > Federal > EPA
Instruments > Environmental Testing > Ocean Analysis > Vehicle
Facilities > Division > Location > Building X
Methods > Social > Population Study
Materials > Compounds > Chemicals
Content Type – Knowledge Asset > Proposals

14. Enterprise Environment – Case One – Taxonomy, 7 facets
Project Owner – KM department – included RM, business process
Involvement of library - critical
Realistic budget, flexible project plan
Successful interviews – build on context
Overall information strategy – where taxonomy fits
Good Draft taxonomy and extended refinement
Software, process, team – train library staff
Good selection and number of facets
Final plans and hand off to client

15. Enterprise Environment – Case Two – Taxonomy, 4 facets
Taxonomy of Subjects / Disciplines:
Geology > Petrology
Facets:
Organization > Division > Group
Process > Drill a Well > File Test Plan
Assets > Platforms > Platform A
Content Type > Communication > Presentations
Issues
Not enough facets
Wrong set of facets – business not information
Ill-defined facets – too complex internal structure

16. Enterprise Environment – Case Two – Taxonomy, 4 facets
Environment Issues
Value of taxonomy understood, but not the complexity and scope
Under budget, under staffed
Location – not KM – tied to RM and software
Solution looking for the right problem
Importance of an internal library staff
Difficulty of merging internal expertise and taxonomy

17. Enterprise Environment – Case Two – Taxonomy, 4 facets
Project Issues
Project mind set – not infrastructure
Wrong kind of project management
Special needs of a taxonomy project
Importance of integration – with team, company
Project plan more important than results
Rushing to meet deadlines doesn’t work with semantics as well as software

18. Enterprise Environment – Case Two – Taxonomy, 4 facets
Research Issues
Not enough research – and wrong people
Interference of non-taxonomy – communication
Misunderstanding of research – wanted tinker toy connections
Interview 1 implies conclusion A
Design Issues
Not enough facets
Wrong set of facets – business not information
Ill-defined facets – too complex internal structure

19. Taxonomy Development Conclusion: Risk Factors
Political-Cultural-Semantic Environment
Not simple resistance - more subtle
– re-interpretation of specific conclusions and sequence of conclusions / Relative importance of specific recommendations
Understanding project scope
Access to content and people
Enthusiastic access
Importance of a unified project team
Working communication as well as weekly meetings

20. Conclusion Enterprise Context – strategic, self knowledge
Importance of a good foundation
Taxonomy Model
Be Smart – beg, borrow, steal resources
Importance of Taxonomy Vision
Infrastructure resource, not a project
Evolving – processes to direct the evolution
Importance of Taxonomy
Balance of expertise and local knowledge

21. Questions? Tom Reamy tomr@kapsgroup.com KAPS Group
Knowledge Architecture Professional Services