Taxonomies provide a model for organizing and understanding information. Here are a few examples of different taxonomy types and the views they provide into an organization:
- Top-Level Taxonomy. This is the "Dewey Decimal System" for your organization's virtual library of documents and information.
- Navigation Taxonomy. This is where things get a bit confusing. Your navigation path may or may not match your Top-Level Taxonomy. In fact, since SharePoint is a non-linear environment, the navigation path may be different for each category of user, so it can't really match the Top-Level Taxonomy. This taxonomy may or may not obey the "Ten Bucket Rule" since it is dynamic and not static.
- Security Taxonomy. This is essentially a description of the roles enjoyed by categories of users, and the rights they will enjoy. In other words, the SharePoint roles you develop is based on a security taxonomy. This taxonomy should obey the "Ten Bucket Rule."
- Organizational Taxonomy. This is the "Org Chart" and is most definitely a taxonomy, but it shouldn't be used as the "Top-Level Taxonomy!" Org charts are always subject to change and Top-Level Taxonomies (TLTs) are not allowed to change.
- Informal Organizational Taxonomy. This too is a taxonomy, but it usually doesn't match an organization's stated Organizational Taxonomy. This is how things "really get done" within the organization. When someone is said to have a "learning curve" after joining an organization, it usually means that it takes them six to twelve months to learn to ignore the formal org chart and pay attention to the organization's social network. Informal Organizational Taxonomies are very fluid. This is because they are based on individual people and voluntary relationships between people, favors owed, and other intangibles. Look for tools like SharePoint to continue to develop social network mapping technologies so that the informal and formal organizational taxonomies can be merged by using workflows.
- Military Rank. This is the mother of all 'role-based taxonomies.' When an individual attains a certain rank they inherit the rights and responsibilities of that rank, there are a finite set of buckets that form a taxonomy of ranks, and each rank is ordinal relative to the others. Opposing organizations typically have some form of rank as well. Rank is usually displayed on a uniform for conventional warfare and hidden for non-conventional warfare. To hide one's role or to falsely adopt a role is considered a crime. When captured, a soldier is only required by the Geneva Convention to disclose their place in taxonomy of rank but not allowed to disclose their place in the organizational taxonomy.
- Product Catalog. This is a taxonomy of goods and services sold by the organization.
- Process Taxonomy. This is a description of the big processes that make up the organization's business model. This can include marketing, sales, customer service, procurement, manufacturing, quality assurance, engineering.
It turns out that SharePoint is very good at redacting information based on multiple taxonomies so that only context-appropriate information is viewed during a web session.
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