Concept Taxonomy
This taxonomy organizes the 200 concepts into 12 logical categories that reflect the major topic areas of the IT Management Graphs course.
1. ITIL (ITIL)
Description: ITIL framework, configuration management, and legacy CMDB concepts including service support, service delivery, and traditional IT management processes.
Concepts Include: - Configuration Management Database (CMDB) - Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) - Service Support and Service Delivery - Change, Incident, Problem, and Release Management - Configuration baselines and audits - Military-spec configuration approaches
2. RDBMS (RDBMS)
Description: Relational database management systems, SQL, schema design, and the limitations of traditional RDBMS for IT management including joins, indexes, and schema rigidity.
Concepts Include: - Relational databases and RDBMS fundamentals - SQL and query languages - Tables, columns, rows, keys - Join operations and query optimization - Schema design and evolution - Transitive dependencies and multi-hop queries
3. Graph Database (GRAPH)
Description: Graph database fundamentals, graph theory, native graph storage, and graph database platforms like Neo4j including nodes, edges, properties, and Cypher queries.
Concepts Include: - Graph theory and graph databases - Nodes, edges, vertices, relationships - Property graphs - Native graph storage vs. graph layers - Neo4j and Cypher query language - Directed/undirected graphs, DAGs
4. Graph Operations (GOPS)
Description: Graph traversal algorithms, path finding, pattern matching, and dependency analysis including depth-first search, breadth-first search, and cycle detection.
Concepts Include: - Graph traversal and algorithms - Depth-first and breadth-first search - Path finding and shortest path - Dependency tracing and mapping - Blast radius and impact analysis - Root cause analysis - Cycle detection
5. Query Performance (QPERF)
Description: Real-time queries, query performance, latency, response time, scalability, and graph metrics including indegree, outdegree, and graph complexity.
Concepts Include: - Real-time queries - Query latency and response time - Performance metrics - Scalability (horizontal and vertical) - Graph complexity and density - Node degree (in-degree and out-degree)
6. Data Management (DATA)
Description: Data quality, data governance, DMBOK principles, metadata, data lineage, master data management, and data stewardship.
Concepts Include: - Data quality and quality dimensions - Data governance and management - DMBOK framework - Accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness, validity - Fitness for purpose - Data stewards, owners, custodians - Metadata and data lineage - Master data management
7. Observability (OBSRV)
Description: Monitoring, telemetry, observability platforms, automated discovery, topology mapping, and tools like OpenTelemetry and eBPF.
Concepts Include: - Observability and monitoring - Telemetry and OpenTelemetry - eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) - Automated discovery and auto-discovery - Network and service topology - Configuration drift detection
8. Compliance & Risk (COMP)
Description: Regulatory compliance, risk management, security, access control, audit trails, and regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and DORA.
Concepts Include: - Compliance and regulatory compliance - HIPAA, GDPR, DORA - Risk management and assessment - Audit trails and compliance reporting - Access control and RBAC - Security models - Policy enforcement
9. Business Services (BIZS)
Description: Business and technical services, service mapping, service dependencies, application portfolios, and IT portfolios.
Concepts Include: - Business and technical services - Service mapping and business service mapping - Service dependencies - Application and IT portfolios - Digital estates - Service level agreements (SLAs)
10. Assets & Integration (ASSET)
Description: IT asset management, hardware and software assets, system integration, service topology, and infrastructure dependencies.
Concepts Include: - Asset management - IT, hardware, and software assets - System integration - Infrastructure dependencies - Application dependencies - Dynamic topology
11. Transformation (TRANS)
Description: Digital transformation, IT modernization, legacy migration, technical debt, migration strategies, and vendor management.
Concepts Include: - Digital transformation - IT modernization - Legacy systems and technical debt - Legacy migration and migration strategies - Data migration and system cutover - Vendor management and evaluation - ServiceNow, Dynatrace, Atlassian - Build vs. buy decisions - TCO and ROI
12. AI & Analytics (AI)
Description: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, AI-assisted curation, graph RAG, knowledge graphs, anomaly detection, and semantic models.
Concepts Include: - Artificial intelligence and machine learning - AI-assisted curation - Graph RAG and retrieval augmented generation - Knowledge graphs and semantic models - Ontologies and taxonomies - Anomaly detection - Exception reporting
13. Operations (OPS)
Description: Operational excellence, incident response, KPIs, SLAs, MTTR/MTTD, continuous improvement, and best practices.
Concepts Include: - Operational excellence - Incident response - Mean time to detect (MTTD) - Mean time to resolve (MTTR) - Key performance indicators (KPIs) - Continuous improvement - Best practices and industry standards - Framework adoption - Process maturity - Capability models
14. Data Validation (VALID)
Description: Data validation, validation rules, business rules, exception reporting, and data quality checking.
Concepts Include: - Data validation - Validation rules and business rules - Exception reporting - Data quality checks - Classification systems
Total Categories: 14 (slightly higher than target to accommodate natural groupings)
Distribution Goal: Each category should contain 10-20 concepts for balanced organization.