Shared Vocabulary: Why Naming Is a Governance Problem, Not a Documentation Task

Many projects fail not because of poor technology or bad intentions but because people simply use different words for the same thing. This episode unpacks the practical cost of inconsistent vocabulary—product names, status codes, service categories, policy labels—and shows how fuzzy naming undermines automation, reporting, accountability and compliance. I translate the problem into business terms (lost revenue, misrouted work, poor decisions) and into IT realities (integration brittleness, mapping overhead, fragile tests), then present a pragmatic, low-friction approach to create usable taxonomies and governance. No academic ontology: small steering rules, a lightweight change process, predictable validation checks, and a couple of cheap guards that prevent drift. For leaders and practitioners who want fewer surprises and faster decision cycles, you’ll get concrete actions business and IT can take tomorrow to reduce risk and tame complexity.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-it-it-business--6867401/support.To continue the conversation, follow Mirko Peters on LinkedIn, where more insights and real-world examples are shared from both business and IT perspectives.