Our proven methodology allows us to produce consistent high quality results with taxonomy development projects. Our consultants work with you through the following steps of taxonomy strategy, content & metadata audit, and taxonomy framework development to produce a taxonomy aligned with your business goals.

Taxonomy Strategy

Before classifying a single document, Earley & Associates will provide you with a taxonomy development strategy. Our user interviews, observations, and process analysis will help you define requirements and achieve consensus on the approach to the taxonomy development project.

We will also address longer term issues such as content classification, taxonomy management and governance, and integration with content management or search solutions. Our holistic approach to taxonomy development ensures that your project will align with the needs, culture, and technology of your organization.

Content and Metadata Audit

A content and metadata audit helps us understand the breadth and depth of your organization’s existing content and metadata, including its properties, relationships, and interdependencies. We then extract the terms and concepts from the content audit to build the foundation the taxonomy framework. The taxonomy framework is the basis for the complete taxonomy we’ll build for you.

Taxonomy Framework

We take an iterative approach to taxonomy development and validate our work with key users, subject matter experts, and stakeholders throughout the process. Once we have built and validated the taxonomy framework, we populate it with the terms that form the complete taxonomy.

Specialized Taxonomies Developed For Your Company or Project

We have developed taxonomies for a broad range of industries from e-commerce to health care companies, and non-profits to governments bodies. We understand the unique approach to taxonomy each industry requires. We can also develop a taxonomy that meets a specific information management need: tagging, navigation, and search.

In every case, the taxonomy we develop for you will match your company’s goals and use your chosen technology. We are an official Endeca partner and are experts in developing taxonomies for faceted search and guided navigation. We specialize in helping companies integrate taxonomy with content management and document management systems such as Vignette, Documentum, and Sharepoint.

Fast Track Business Taxonomies

If you do not have the time or resources to develop the “perfect” taxonomy, we can help you get a fast track taxonomy development project started quickly. We use intensive workshops, group validation sessions, and online cardsorts to capitalize on limited budgets and time frames. Our fast track taxonomy development will provide you with a framework to start you on the path to better content management.

For more on Earley & Associates' taxonomy development services, contact  Seth Earley.