{"id":15635,"date":"2022-08-01T11:00:01","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/?p=15635"},"modified":"2022-08-01T13:21:19","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T17:21:19","slug":"breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few years ago, I did an activity at a leadership retreat where each person slowly whittled down a list of words to a single word that most represented them. The word that I ended up with was \u201csimplicity,\u201d and I <a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-15637 size-thumbnail alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"140\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png 140w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-336x336.png 336w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-771x771.png 771w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped.png 872w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 140px) 100vw, 140px\" \/><\/a>have tried to hold myself to that ever since. I don\u2019t like text that\u2019s long or complicated for the sake of sounding smart. When designing technical solutions, I often ask, \u201cwhy do I need this?\u201d so that I don\u2019t overcomplicate solutions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I appreciate when ideas can be broken down into concise parts, and that\u2019s what this blog series is about&#8211;breaking down knowledge management topics into simple, easy-to-understand pieces. This blog covers \u201cWhat is a Taxonomy?\u201d a question I often asked when I joined EK.<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2>How EK defines Taxonomy<\/h2>\n<p>I\u2019ve always said that a taxonomy is a list of stuff to describe your stuff. However, that\u2019s pretty vague, so let\u2019s try something else. EK\u2019s definition of a taxonomy is,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Taxonomy-Definition.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15850 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Taxonomy-Definition.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"497\" height=\"56\" srcset=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Taxonomy-Definition.png 497w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Taxonomy-Definition-336x38.png 336w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">controlled vocabularies<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the definition are lists of options. These are the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/faceting-is-sweet\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">filters<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> you see on the left-hand side when searching for items on an online store. These are also the options you get when looking at a site\u2019s navigation, like the one at the top of EK\u2019s website. For example, the list of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Services<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is part of a taxonomy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The options within the controlled vocabularies are often called <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">concepts<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Concepts are abstract ideas or known things, independent of the terms used to describe them. For example, let\u2019s assume our taxonomy lists cities in the United States and contains a concept for Washington, D.C. This concept would have multiple terms used to refer to the same city:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">Washington, D.C.,<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">D.C.,<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">District of Columbia, and<\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\">U.S. Capital.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It could even have labels in other languages, such as \u201cWashington,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Distrito de Columbia.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> These labels are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">synonyms<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or translations, all referring to the same concept. Synonyms are one key element that enable taxonomies to standardize how information is described in an organization. Regardless of how different people, departments, or cultures label something, we can relate all of those labels to the same concept in a taxonomy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, the controlled vocabularies can have multiple levels (parent-child relationships) in their hierarchy. That is, there could be a \u201cProduct Type\u201d category that contains \u201cClothing,\u201d \u201cElectronics,\u201d or \u201cFood.\u201d If you expand \u201cElectronics,\u201d then you can see the next level, which has \u201cComputers,\u201d \u201cMobile Phones,\u201d and \u201cTVs.\u201d We can create lists of concepts with multiple labels and levels in a hierarchy and use them to describe concepts of information and the relationships between them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The definition states that taxonomies are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used to describe or characterize explicit concepts of information<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. These <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">concepts of information<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, or more simply, content,<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can be anything from people to the pages of a website. What is considered content depends on the use case and what is described. When looking at an online store, the products are the content. When looking at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/knowledge-base\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">EK\u2019s knowledge base<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the content is the individual news items, blogs, case studies, and other postings that we want to ensure are uniformly described so that users can reach the content relevant to them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Taxonomy Use Cases<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that we know what taxonomies are, let\u2019s discuss how they are applied, as denoted by the second part of the definition, \u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">for purposes of capture, management, and presentation<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Capture<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When creating or updating content (a document in a document management system, a page of web content in a content management system, an image uploaded to a digital asset management system, etc.), we associate the content with concepts from the taxonomy to describe it. At this stage, we are <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">capturing <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the context of that content so that we can display this context to users and help them understand the content. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/choosing-the-best-metadata-fields-for-your-taxonomy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Choosing what context to capture<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is important as the context helps users find and discover content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Often the capture of context is manual, requiring authors to assign concepts to content through metadata fields. Sometimes <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/when-should-my-organization-use-auto-tagging\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">auto-tagging<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can be leveraged to determine concept relevance to content automatically. After the associations are created, the content and concepts are stored in a management system and used to enhance the display of the content. Leverage a taxonomy in multiple metadata fields to describe the content in a uniform way, helping users find what they need.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Management<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Continuing with our example of a product in an online store, applying a taxonomy to products allows us to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">manage<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the products. We can easily organize an entire catalog of products as we group them by product brand, product type, size, color, or other describing features. Imagine if vendors that supply the products could input a custom color for each product. Then, when you try to filter those products by color, you may end up with variations of reds, blues, and purples, let alone \u201cgrey\u201d versus \u201cgray.\u201d The freeform input will make it hard to identify the products belonging to a specific color. Each set of options that we can use to describe a product ensures that we are uniformly describing the content, making it easier to keep track of an extensive catalog of products. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Presentation<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After we capture and manage the content metadata, the remaining step is to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">present<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the content and metadata to users. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/taxonomy-design-best-practices\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taxonomy design best practices<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> encourage us to create intuitive taxonomies such that labels are familiar to all users and the layout of the taxonomy is easy to follow. This is especially important as taxonomies are leveraged for website navigation and menus, helping users browse a website to find what they need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Breadcrumb.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-15638 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Breadcrumb-771x109.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"90\" srcset=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Breadcrumb-771x109.png 771w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Breadcrumb-336x48.png 336w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Breadcrumb-768x109.png 768w, https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Breadcrumb.png 1022w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h5 style=\"text-align: center;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A screenshot of the breadcrumb, Books, Computers &amp; Technology, and Computer Science, for the Making Knowledge Management Clickable book by Joseph Hilger and Zach Wahl.<\/span><\/i><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In online stores, a breadcrumb shows how a product relates to a describing taxonomy. This is only doable because we captured this context when creating the product, allowing us to present that same taxonomy to users to locate the product. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/the-4-steps-to-designing-an-effective-taxonomy-1-design-a-user-centric-taxonomy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taxonomy design<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is as crucial as taxonomy application, the primary way users interact with information. Filters and site navigation need to be intuitive so that users can be presented with and find information relevant to them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taxonomies are a core piece of most, if not all, knowledge management efforts. A well-designed and applied taxonomy facilitates <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/findability-v-discoverability\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">findability and discoverability<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through the capture, management, and presentation of content metadata. If you found this blog helpful or have a topic you would like us to cover next, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/contact-us\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reach out and let us know<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. There are many more topics for us to break down, and we are excited to continue this blog series. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few years ago, I did an activity at a leadership retreat where each person slowly whittled down a list of words to a single word that most represented them. The word that I ended up with was \u201csimplicity,\u201d and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\"  class=\"with-arrow\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[184],"tags":[],"article-type":[100],"solution":[1111],"ppma_author":[1391],"class_list":["post-15635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-taxonomy-ontology-design","article-type-blog","solution-taxonomy-ontology"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","slideshow":"","slideshow-2x":"","banner":"","home-large":"","home-medium":"","home-small":"","gform-image-choice-sm":"","gform-image-choice-md":"","gform-image-choice-lg":""},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>A few years ago, I did an activity at a leadership retreat where each person slowly whittled down a list of words to a single word that most represented them. The word that I ended up with was \u201csimplicity,\u201d and I have tried to hold myself to that ever since. I don\u2019t like text that\u2019s long or complicated for the sake of sounding smart. When designing technical solutions, I often ask, \u201cwhy do I need this?\u201d so that I don\u2019t overcomplicate solutions. I appreciate when ideas can be broken down into concise parts, and that\u2019s what this blog series is&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/category\/taxonomy-ontology-design\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Taxonomy &amp; Ontology Design<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"EK Team","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/enterprise-knowledge\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy? - Enterprise Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Taxonomies are a core piece of most knowledge management efforts. Well-designed and applied taxonomies facilitate findability and discoverability through the capture, management, and presentation of content metadata.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy? - Enterprise Knowledge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Taxonomies are a core piece of most knowledge management efforts. Well-designed and applied taxonomies facilitate findability and discoverability through the capture, management, and presentation of content metadata.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Enterprise Knowledge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Enterprise-Knowledge-359618484181651\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-01T15:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-01T17:21:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"EK Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EKConsulting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EKConsulting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"EK Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"EK Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fe4c950023b0a2d4ea9057f16c70a16c\"},\"headline\":\"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-01T15:00:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-01T17:21:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\"},\"wordCount\":1121,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Taxonomy &amp; Ontology Design\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy? - Enterprise Knowledge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-01T15:00:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-01T17:21:19+00:00\",\"description\":\"Taxonomies are a core piece of most knowledge management efforts. Well-designed and applied taxonomies facilitate findability and discoverability through the capture, management, and presentation of content metadata.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped.png\",\"width\":872,\"height\":872},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/\",\"name\":\"Enterprise Knowledge\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Enterprise Knowledge\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/favicon.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/favicon.jpg\",\"width\":69,\"height\":69,\"caption\":\"Enterprise Knowledge\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Enterprise-Knowledge-359618484181651\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/EKConsulting\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/enterprise-knowledge-llc\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fe4c950023b0a2d4ea9057f16c70a16c\",\"name\":\"EK Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/11955f4cea9ef25d7e2fbc5bf76ce329\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/avatar_user_17_1749066222-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/avatar_user_17_1749066222-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"EK Team\"},\"description\":\"A services firm that integrates Knowledge Management, Information Management, Information Technology, and Agile Approaches to deliver comprehensive solutions. Our mission is to form true partnerships with our clients, listening and collaborating to create tailored, practical, and results-oriented solutions that enable them to thrive and adapt to changing needs.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/enterprise-knowledge\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy? - Enterprise Knowledge","description":"Taxonomies are a core piece of most knowledge management efforts. Well-designed and applied taxonomies facilitate findability and discoverability through the capture, management, and presentation of content metadata.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy? - Enterprise Knowledge","og_description":"Taxonomies are a core piece of most knowledge management efforts. Well-designed and applied taxonomies facilitate findability and discoverability through the capture, management, and presentation of content metadata.","og_url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/","og_site_name":"Enterprise Knowledge","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Enterprise-Knowledge-359618484181651\/","article_published_time":"2022-08-01T15:00:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-01T17:21:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"EK Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EKConsulting","twitter_site":"@EKConsulting","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"EK Team","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/"},"author":{"name":"EK Team","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fe4c950023b0a2d4ea9057f16c70a16c"},"headline":"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy?","datePublished":"2022-08-01T15:00:01+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-01T17:21:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/"},"wordCount":1121,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png","articleSection":["Taxonomy &amp; Ontology Design"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/","name":"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy? - Enterprise Knowledge","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped-140x140.png","datePublished":"2022-08-01T15:00:01+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-01T17:21:19+00:00","description":"Taxonomies are a core piece of most knowledge management efforts. Well-designed and applied taxonomies facilitate findability and discoverability through the capture, management, and presentation of content metadata.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/noun-wrecking-ball_cropped.png","width":872,"height":872},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/breaking-it-down-what-is-a-taxonomy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking it down: What is a Taxonomy?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/","name":"Enterprise Knowledge","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#organization","name":"Enterprise Knowledge","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/favicon.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/favicon.jpg","width":69,"height":69,"caption":"Enterprise Knowledge"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Enterprise-Knowledge-359618484181651\/","https:\/\/x.com\/EKConsulting","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/enterprise-knowledge-llc"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/person\/fe4c950023b0a2d4ea9057f16c70a16c","name":"EK Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/11955f4cea9ef25d7e2fbc5bf76ce329","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/avatar_user_17_1749066222-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/avatar_user_17_1749066222-96x96.png","caption":"EK Team"},"description":"A services firm that integrates Knowledge Management, Information Management, Information Technology, and Agile Approaches to deliver comprehensive solutions. Our mission is to form true partnerships with our clients, listening and collaborating to create tailored, practical, and results-oriented solutions that enable them to thrive and adapt to changing needs.","url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/enterprise-knowledge\/"}]}},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"slideshow":false,"slideshow-2x":false,"banner":false,"home-large":false,"home-medium":false,"home-small":false,"gform-image-choice-sm":false,"gform-image-choice-md":false,"gform-image-choice-lg":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"EK Team","author_link":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/author\/enterprise-knowledge\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"A few years ago, I did an activity at a leadership retreat where each person slowly whittled down a list of words to a single word that most represented them. The word that I ended up with was \u201csimplicity,\u201d and &hellip; Continue reading","authors":[{"term_id":1391,"user_id":17,"is_guest":0,"slug":"enterprise-knowledge","display_name":"EK Team","avatar_url":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/avatar_user_17_1749066222-96x96.png","first_name":"EK","last_name":"Team","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":"A services firm that integrates Knowledge Management, Information Management, Information Technology, and Agile Approaches to deliver comprehensive solutions. Our mission is to form true partnerships with our clients, listening and collaborating to create tailored, practical, and results-oriented solutions that enable them to thrive and adapt to changing needs."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15635"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15868,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15635\/revisions\/15868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15635"},{"taxonomy":"article-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-type?post=15635"},{"taxonomy":"solution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/solution?post=15635"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enterprise-knowledge.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=15635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}