Taxonomy Best Practices Lead to Simplicity

Big, broad categories bolstered by a simple method of extension are the way to a sustainable taxonomy. Here are a few ideas to help in developing your taxonomy plan-

1. Keep the top-level categories of the taxonomy as simple as possible-hold to no more than ten topics.
2. Use broad, horizontal categories that are *NOT* tied to the org chart. Good examples are: Documents, People, Projects, Knowledge Areas, Marketing/Sales, Reports, Finance. Although “Marketing and Sales” are often supported by a single organization or department, no company can last long if they don’t sell something to somebody sometime.
3. Look in the company’s custom Noise-Word Lists. Law firms as an example, when searching internally, will ignore their most important key words as “noise.” Law firms will ignore words like Lawyers, Litigation, Clients; Teacher’s Unions will ignore words like Teachers, Curricula, Certifications; and so these are candidates for top-level categories. They are certainly candidates for seeding search engines outside the company. One person’s noise is another person’s key word.
4. A simple taxonomy governance group *MUST* be created to govern and maintain the taxonomy definitions. The chief purpose of governance, from a strategic viewpoint, is the creation and maintenance of taxonomy definitions.