Ten questions for taxonomy teams

June, 2003

Today, creating a corporate taxonomy is a team activity that brings together experts from multiple disciplines. It's important for team members to participate in learning activities as a group, preferably in a hands-on setting using their own data. This article discusses ten questions that taxonomy teams need to answer:

1. How do we develop a common conceptual framework?

2. How do we develop a common vocabulary?

3. How do we define our domains?

4. How do we distinguish between a taxonomy and a taxonomy architecture?

5. What tools and techniques are available for linking specialized taxonomies?

6. What role does content creation play in taxonomy maintenance, and how can the system encourage authors to use taxonomy data?

7. What methods are available to extract, exchange, and use taxonomy data stored in proprietary data formats?

8. What are the pros and cons of metadata repositories and solutions?

9. How should we design, implement, and analyze a taxonomy pilot?

10. How do we assess our organization's readiness for taxonomy development, and what are the options for a phased implementation?

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