Why Create a Taxonomy?

Anyone who has seen the effects of unplanned projects knows why it is important to have a plan before starting to build. Also, due to the complex nature of DAU's knowledge: teaching notes, lessons learned, magazine articles, case studies, etc. some are often confused and unable to see the value as each of these are handled individually.
Some of the basic deliverables of building aTaxonomy include:

Site Maps: Maps reflect navigation and main content buckets. They are usually constructed to look like flowcharts and show how users navigate from one section to another, whether in a database or on a website.

Content Maps: Detailed maps that show what exists on each page and how content on some pages interacts with content on other pages.

Page Schematics: Black and white line drawings or block diagrams to hand off to a visual designer. These may, or may not, reflect layout and are used mostly to inform the designer and the client exactly what information, links, content, promotional space, and navigation will be on every page of the site. Schematics also help illustrate priority.

Text-Based Outlines: Sometimes information architects want to show architecture as indented text outlines and lists.

Interactive, Semi-Functional Prototyping: In some cases, information architects are responsible for outlining or storyboarding functional prototypes, and in others they actually build prototypes with HTML, Flash, Director, or PowerPoint.

How do you build a Taxonomy?

First, it's extremely important to find out who's using it, who's building it, and what its goals are. Maybe the hardest part of information architecture is to help identify a focus or necessary component of intuitive form and function. But after focusing, evaluation is all about anticipated user paths, logical process flows, and determining how to balance efficiency with ease of use. Good, consistent information architecture will help users build relationships and trust with the technology and product

Architecture can and should be an extremely collaborative and iterative process, which evolves somewhat organically in as much structure that can be defined up-front as possible. Anything an IA can do to ask as many questions and get as many answers up-front will ultimately help the process. Architects also need to focus on who will be using the site, strategic and business goals, key usability principals, technical constraints, and future needs.