Taxonomies exist to support business processes, associated goals, and subsist within the context of multiple business processes. Furthermore, taxonomies grow and evolve with the business. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that taxonomies are maintained in a way that satisfies current and future needs of an enterprise and provides the maximum return on investment. Hence, the need for taxonomy governance. Taxonomy governance ensures taxonomies grow in a managed, predictable way by evolving within the context of an enterprise.
To begin with, what is taxonomy governance? Taxonomy governance consists of policies, procedures and documentation for managing and using taxonomies within an enterprise. In addition, it establishes long-term ownership and responsibility for taxonomies. In fact, taxonomy governance is designed to assure that taxonomies respond to changes in user and business needs and evolve in a sustainable manner.
If examined closely, taxonomy governance shares many of its principles and goals with information governance. Therefore, a good first step for developing taxonomy governance would be to take advantage of the existing structure, workflows and management processes within an enterprise. Repurposing familiar policies and systems to frame taxonomy governance will make both adoption and compliance easier for taxonomy users and provide a strategic framework to guide day-to-day taxonomy management.
There are two main components to the taxonomy governance framework. One is the taxonomy management organization and the other the operations and maintenance activities they perform on the taxonomy. A formal taxonomy organization is vital because ongoing maintenance and development of a taxonomy is best achieved by a formal organization with well-defined and clearly documented roles, responsibilities, and processes. Similarly, taxonomy operations and maintenance tasks performed by the taxonomy management organization is critical as ongoing maintenance is a very important aspect of a taxonomy project. In the absence of maintenance, taxonomies atrophy and the value they provide will be greatly diminished.
Furthermore, one of the most important purposes of taxonomy governance is to define the taxonomy change process by defining and documenting specific changes. In addition, administrators need to be provided with proper guidance to enable them to make those changes. The last but not the least important goal of taxonomy governance is to maximize the return on taxonomy investments. The taxonomy governance team establishes strategic goals for the taxonomy and develops organization-wide policies for taxonomy management and use designed to meet those goals.
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