Information Management: Taxonomy creation methodology

Made more progress on Taxonomy creation methodology yesterday on several front. Enlisted several peer to collaborate or comment of the core aspects of developing a system to determine taxonomy approach; Richard Harbridge and Ruven Gotz. I was pleased that Richard had picked up my recommendation and read Patrick Lambe’s Organizing Knowledge. It gives use some common ground to discuss going forward.

The materials Lambe covers look to drive core of the methodology. Richard and I discussed the design of the methodology and agreed on next steps he’d take on. He pointed out developing key questions to help make assessments possible was a key component and volunteered to develop such. I’m working on the translation of those questions into matrices. We had initially some disagreement on whether the results should be a set of matrices or a gradient scale. We resolved that issue as just a presentation option that consultants can select as per their preference.

The system design appears to have the same pattern as the marketing management process (MMP) I reengineered for IBM ten years ago. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that as the nature of both problem spaces have similar attributes; both have elements of unstructured and structured knowledge. The mechanisms I used for MMP included: multiple routes through the process; a capability maturity model; ISO9000 verification and validation; and several six sigma measurement methods.

The key concern both Richard and I share about formalizing an approach is avoiding creating a technical religion with a priesthood. However, I’m sure we can avoid establishing such by putting the approach in the public domain. As we progress I will continue to post the results on this Blog which is covered by the Creative Commons License or on Microsoft’s Office Templates Online for free downloads. The only restrictions I believe my collaborators agreed on and I have on reuse are spelled out in that license. Basically we want to ensure credit is given to those that have either directly contributed or contributed through their published works (e.g., Partrick Lambe, etc.)

Next post will contain the reading list on Information Management topics I’m using.