A compendium and evaluation of taxonomy quality attributes
Michael Unterkalmsteiner, Waleed Adbeen
Abstract
Abstract Introduction Taxonomies capture knowledge about a particular domain in a succinct manner and establish a common understanding among peers. Researchers use taxonomies to convey information about a particular knowledge area or to support automation tasks, and practitioners use them to enable communication beyond organizational boundaries. Aims Even though this important role of taxonomies in software engineering, their quality is seldom evaluated. Our aim is to identify and define taxonomy quality attributes that provide practical measurements, helping researchers and practitioners to compare taxonomies and choose the one most adequate for the task at hand. Methods We reviewed 324 publications from software engineering and information systems research and synthesized, when provided, the definitions of quality attributes and measurements. We evaluated the usefulness of the measurements on six taxonomies from three domains. Results We propose the definition of seven quality attributes and suggest internal and external measurements that can be used to assess a taxonomy's quality. For two measurements we provide implementations in Python. We found the measurements useful for deciding which taxonomy is best suited for a particular purpose. Conclusion While there exist several guidelines for creating taxonomies, there is a lack of actionable criteria to compare taxonomies. In this article, we fill this gap by synthesizing from a wealth of literature seven, non‐overlapping taxonomy quality attributes and corresponding measurements. Future work encompasses their further evaluation of usefulness and empirical validation.