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 Audit:Knowledge MapProject 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

Meetings, work groups

General Outline

Broad Context

Deep Details

Deep Details

Complete Picture

New

Foundation

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Taxonomy Development Process:Progressive RefinementTaxonomy 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 1.0-1.9

Tax 2.0 Taxonomy

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Taxonomy Development: Tips and TechniquesFoundation

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 TechniquesDevelopment 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 > 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

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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 > 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

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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 doesn’t 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

Questions?

Tom Reamytomr@kapsgroup.com

KAPS Group

Knowledge Architecture Professional Services

http://www.kapsgroup.com