Taxonomy Development Case Studies

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Taxonomy DevelopmentCase Studies

• Tom ReamyChief Knowledge Architect
• KAPS Group
• Knowledge Architecture Professional Services
• http//www.kapsgroup.com

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Agenda

• Introduction
• Development Process Examples
• Tale of Two Taxonomies Best of Times and Worst
  of Times
• Conclusion

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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

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Knowledge Architecture AuditKnowledge Map
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Taxonomy Development ProcessProgressive
Refinement
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Taxonomy Development Tips and TechniquesFoundati
on

• 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

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Taxonomy Development Tips and TechniquesTaxonomy
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

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Infrastructure Solutions Taxonomy
DevelopmentTaxonomy 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

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Taxonomy Development Tips and TechniquesDevelopm
ent 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

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Taxonomy Development Tips and TechniquesEvaluate
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

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Taxonomy Development Tips and TechniquesEvaluate
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

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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

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Enterprise Environment Case One Taxonomy, 7
facets

• Taxonomy of Subjects / Disciplines
• Science gt Marine Science gt Marine microbiology gt
  Marine toxins
• Facets
• Organization gt Division gt Group
• Clients gt Federal gt EPA
• Instruments gt Environmental Testing gt Ocean
  Analysis gt Vehicle
• Facilities gt Division gt Location gt Building X
• Methods gt Social gt Population Study
• Materials gt Compounds gt Chemicals
• Content Type Knowledge Asset gt Proposals

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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

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Enterprise Environment Case Two Taxonomy, 4
facets

• Taxonomy of Subjects / Disciplines
• Geology gt Petrology
• Facets
• Organization gt Division gt Group
• Process gt Drill a Well gt File Test Plan
• Assets gt Platforms gt Platform A
• Content Type gt Communication gt Presentations
• Issues
• Not enough facets
• Wrong set of facets business not information
• Ill-defined facets too complex internal
  structure

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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

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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 doesnt work with
  semantics as well as software

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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

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Taxonomy DevelopmentConclusion 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

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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

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Questions?

• Tom Reamytomr_at_kapsgroup.com
• KAPS Group
• Knowledge Architecture Professional Services
• http//www.kapsgroup.com