Common Taxonomy Categories (Buckets)

Here are some very common top-level taxonomy categories that I've run into during my workshops.  Please remember that these are not all-inclusive, and they may or may not work with your organization.  Although there are a great many options in implementation, these categories could either be deployed as top-level sites or as content types.  Here they are in no particular order:

1. Money - Money has unique rules for interpretation, governance, approval and use. 
2. People - Information about people is unique and governed by unique regulatory constraints and guidelines.
3. Our Organization- This can include everything from org charts to departmental collaboration sites.  It can also include marketing information.
4. One to Many Communication - This includes reports, press releases, newsletters, externally facing websites, and other broadcast methods of communication.
5. Many to Many - This includes various kinds of collaboration or team sites.  The rules governing this kind of communication are different than others.
6. Many to One- This includes market intelligence, surveys, business intelligence and other methods of aggregating multiple sources of information and making disciplined inferences.
7. Our Products and Services - This is information about the work products that give the organization a reason to exist.

In order for a document to be moved from one taxonomy category to another, policy approval is required. This gives you some useful boundaries to help determine when an approval work-flow is required and when it is not.

Although this list is a good starting point, please don't make the mistake of using it "as is."  Just as a Master Page template needs customization and personalization, so your organization needs to go through the process of developing a custom unique taxonomy.  This list is a great staring point, but you also need to consider the requirements of your own organization and it's focus.