Taxonomy Change Management

1© Copyright 2012 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

TaxonomyChange Management

Matt JohnsonSLA Annual MeetingChicago, Illinois, USA18 July 2012


What’s this about? Many sources of

information on how to create taxonomies; fewer on how to manage taxonomies once created

Taxonomy management platforms typically don’t account for business processes


Who’s it for? Focus on large

enterprises

Tools and best practices can be applied in many settings


Who are you?• Program Manager,

Information Standards, eServices, EMC• Computer hardware and

software manufacturer• B2B space• Fortune 500• ~54K employees around

the world

• Formerly lead taxonomist for Microsoft field sales and marketing portal


Agenda Overview: survey of working taxonomists

Developing change management processes

Establishing service level agreements

Engaging and training stakeholders

Using tools to support management processes








Survey of working taxonomists Conducted via SurveyMonkey,

March 2012

Promoted to a global audience via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn groups (notably TaxoCoP, SLA Taxonomy Division, regional SLA chapters)

55 individual respondents

5 high-level questions about taxonomy management practices in their workplaces








Why business processes?

Most taxonomists don’t work alone.



Minimize input channels

Avoid reinventing the wheel

Avoid hearsay

Avoid duplication of effort



The taxonomy will last longer than you will.


Business processes

are dynamic.


Business processes

are dynamic.

Expect them to change as

new requests are

made.


Integrating with existing data and workflows

Unnecessary in an ideal world,but most of our worlds are far from ideal.



Taxonomies often dependent on large, complex data infrastructure with its own processes

Each part of the process known to relevant stakeholders, but no overall insight



User research techniques for identifying existing processes:

– Interviewing stakeholders– Observation








What’s an SLA? A negotiated agreement between taxonomy

consumers and taxonomy managers

Records a common understanding about services, priorities, responsibilities, and guarantees

Commonly includes:– definition of services– performance measurement (metrics)– problem management– consumer duties

Need not be highly formal


What’s the value of an SLA? Setting expectations with

consumers

Setting expectations with management team

When there is disagreement, SLA is an artifact which can be referenced

Typically requires collection of metrics


Why are metrics useful? Tracking to meet established

SLAs

Identifying heavy consumers, taxonomy growth areas

Identifying processes which can be improved or discarded

Estimating team capacity

Making a case for resources (money, tools, staffing) to meet need








How many stakeholders?


Who are the stakeholders?


Identifying stakeholders

Audiences you need to engage to be successful

– Content authors and publishers

– User experience designers– Developers (front- and

back-end)– Site/repository owners– Subject matter experts

(SMEs)


Keeping them engaged

Emphasize value and relevance to what they care about

Frame introduction and use of the taxonomy as simply as possible

The “what” is less important than the “why”


Keeping them engaged

Winning advocates and promoters

The personal touch: face-to-face, phone, email

Establish clear communication channels

Establish SLAs and meet them consistently

Educate as you go

Other methods– Documentation (internal/external, processes/applications)– Live/computer-based training sessions– Social media








What tools are commonly used?


Pros and cons: word of mouth

• Immediacy and transparency• Ease of explaining complex

issues in person

• Not easily used by larger, distributed teams

• Not captured in metrics• No audit trail• No opportunity for

oversight

Pros

Cons

Fully 1 out of 5 respondents rely on word of mouth for some part of their request management


Pros and cons: email

• Everyone already has it and uses it

• Timely response not guaranteed

• Mechanisms for oversight limited

• Metrics, audit trails hard to derive

• Vulnerable to corruption and loss

Pros

Cons

Most commonly used (2 out of 3 respondents)


Pros and cons: separate tracking tool

• Ease of oversight• Ease of use by distributed teams• Ease of extracting metrics, audit

trails

Pros

Cons

Bug trackers, task managers, CRM, etc.

• Separate from taxonomy manager• Need for training on tool, procedures• Limited accessibility, transparency for

consumers• Big investment in addition to taxonomy

manager


Pros and cons: taxonomy editor• All the information you need in one

place• Ease of oversight• Ease of use by distributed teams• Ease of extracting metrics, audit

trails

Pros

Cons

Many, though not all, taxonomy management platforms incorporate a work queue

• Expensive• Technically difficult to implement

and support• Limited accessibility, transparency

for consumers


All tools have pros!

• Discussion is indispensable, provided it’s also documented somewhere• Email is useful for timely

answers to specific questions posed by a small audience• Most taxonomists are

using multiple tools in conjunction with one another


Summary

• You’re not in this alone• Set expectations, back them up with data• Know your audience, keep them motivated• Know the right tool to use for the job


We’re looking for a few good:• UX designers• Usability

engineers• Search architects• Metadata mavens

a taxonomist

EMC

Technology

Taxonomy Change Management