Taxonomy
Building a comprehensive event-based taxonomy from scratch is ambitious and time-consuming, requiring subject-matter expertise and a holistic view of the problem. In particular, ensuring the list is both mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (that is, complete and without overlaps) is very demanding. A classification that meets both of these demands is known as a ‘MECE’ structure, and creating one requires the use of multiple iterations of divergent and convergent problem solving. After several years’ work we have arrived at a point where we are satisfied that the COEL is indeed a MECE taxonomy of everyday events.
An excerpt from Data to Life. Image reproduced with kind permission from Coelition.