An event taxonomy, also called an event schema, is the agreed list of events a platform tracks, with the name and the properties each one must carry. Every system that sends data shares it: web tracking, the mobile app, the order system, and the loyalty tool all write to the same profile, and the taxonomy keeps them writing the same thing.
Category
Data Architecture
Also known as
event schema; event catalog; event naming; event definition; tracking taxonomy
A healthy one uses one event name for each customer action, and every event on it has a reader: a campaign, segment, or report that uses it. An unpruned one has three purchase events and a hundred that nobody reads. The usual failure is three teams tracking purchase, Purchase, and order_completed into the same profile, and a segment that only sees one of them.
In practice
Give the taxonomy an owner and a version. Inventory every event with its 30-day volume and its readers. Merge duplicates, and retire the unread ones with a grace period before deleting them. Refuse any new event that arrives without a named reader.
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