Taxonomy Manager (Metadata & Sharepoint)

Introduction:

The Knowledge Management (KM) Program requires different types of metadata (taxonomies) in order to classify different types of knowledge.

One of the taxonomies developed is the Expertise Area taxonomy: a set of metadata that allows tagging of both content and people in order to drive connections between KM information types (Knowledge, Lessons, People, Discussions, Encyclopedia Articles, etc) and Professional Communities. This will provide benefit to the cient allowing users find KM items and see which Expertise Area is responsible for owning and approving these items.

On top of the Expertise Area Taxonomy, a second Subject Area' taxonomy is needed in order to define what something is about (subject area being a like a Wikipedia category). Examples of Subject Areas are Realm (Deepwater, OffShore) and Problem (Stuck Pipe, Corrosion).

This Subject Area Taxonomy will exist of multiple inter-related subject areas managed at different organizational levels (Enterprise, Function, Professional Community), also with their definition and value owners sitting within these organizational layers.

The KM Program is looking for a resource responsible for the creation of a design for the subject areas, the management processes for creating it and changing it along with the roles and responsibilities, aligning this with all involved stakeholders and implementing a solution in the organization. This includes working with IT Architects to identification of the necessary (IT) tools and products (eg Dictionary and Thesaurus) to support the solution.

Main Responsibilities
1. Creation of a conceptual model and detailed requirements for the KM's needs for a Subject Area Taxonomy, recognizing that there are other parts of the client with similar needs and aspirations.
o Work with Data Architects to make it fit within the Enterprise Data Model
o Align this with Enterprise Information Management specialists
2. Ensure the requirements are for a solution which is
o Manageable and understandable for the end-user, and
o Technically Feasible to Implement, but also
o Logically Right
3. Set out the requirements for the appropriate tools to support the solution and drive identification and selection
o Tool(s) to help manage the identified structures/conceptual model (eg Semaphore)
o Dictionaries to host definitions
o Thesaurus for hosting synonyms, acronyms, abbreviations
4. Work with stakeholders to agree the most effective design to physically realize the Subject Area Taxonomy, working with other stakeholders
o For example, how will it be implemented as Term sets in the clients O365 Term Store, and as managed meta-data and how will it be used to index SQL databases
5. Working with the following stakeholders to align the solution:
o KM Solutions Owner
o Enterprise Information Management management, P&T representatives and experts
o ShareWise (SharePoint Implementation Program)
o Metadata and Taxonomy Experts
o IT Architecture
o Search Center of Excellence
o Library Migration Project

Resource that has (ideally)

1. Strong understanding of taxonomy development and deployment
2. Good and quick in understanding conceptual models, data architecture, requirement definition etc.
3. Strong understanding of the SharePoint Platform and how it's used for content tagging and classification
4. Experience with
o The SharePoint Term store and overcoming limitations
o Implementing terms in a term set (or familiar with the concepts, the way it should be used and the technology)
o Taxonomy Management and related tools
o Oil Industry dictionary and thesaurus
5. Understand Information Management processes and critical success factors

Other skills

Good team player and communication skills
Drive engagement with stakeholders and related activity
Experience on company-wide and/or global projects, or across lines of business
Self-starter with top-notch design skills and ability
Experience at getting change done through others
Be able to work in an environment where there are multiple stakeholders who may often have differing views/maturity/eagerness to help