Taxonomy

Definition

A Taxonomy is any categorization or classification of a collection of things or concepts. It is a scheme of classification, typically a hierarchical classification, in which things or concepts are organized into groups or types of increasing specificity.

Mathematically, a hierarchical taxonomy is a tree structure of classifications for a given set of objects. It is also named a containment hierarchy. At the top of this structure is a single classification, the root node, that encompasses all objects. Nodes below this root are more specific classifications that apply to subsets of the total set of classified objects.

Examples

There are countless examples of taxonomies used in various domains. Some illustrative examples with applications to Risk Management:

• Risk Taxonomy
• Risk Data Taxonomy
• XBRL Taxonomy, eXtensible Business Reporting Language
• Corporate Taxonomy, the hierarchical classification of entities of interest to an enterprise, organization or administration
• Economic Taxonomy, a system of classification for economic activity
  • Global Industry Classification Standard, an industry taxonomy developed by MSCI and Standard & Poor's (S&P)
  • Industry Classification Benchmark, an industry classification taxonomy launched by Dow Jones and FTSE
  • International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC), a United Nations system for classifying economic data
  • North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), used in Canada, Mexico, and the United States of America
  • Pavitt's Taxonomy, classification of firms by their principal sources of innovation
  • Standard Industrial Classification, a system for classifying industries by a four-digit code
  • United Kingdom Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities, a Standard Industrial Classification by type of economic activity
• Records management taxonomy, the representation of data, upon which the classification of unstructured content is based, within an organization.
• SRK Taxonomy, in workplace user-interface design
• Bloom's Taxonomy, a standardized categorization of learning objectives in an educational context
• Classification of Instructional Programs, a taxonomy of academic disciplines at institutions of higher education in the United States
• Mathematics Subject Classification, an alphanumerical classification scheme based on the coverage of Mathematical Reviews and Zentralblatt MATH
• SOLO Taxonomy, Structure of Observed Learning Outcome, proposed by Biggs and Collis Tax
• Safety Taxonomy, a standardized set of terminologies used within the fields of safety and health care
  • Human Factors Analysis and Classification System, a system to identify the human causes of an accident
  • Swiss Cheese Model, a model used in risk analysis and risk management propounded by Dante Orlandella and James T. Reason
  • A taxonomy of rail incidents in Confidential Incident Reporting & Analysis System (CIRAS)

See also

• Knowledge Representation
• Ontology, formal representation of knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain

References

• Taxonomy