Catalog
concept#Architecture#Governance#Integration#Software Engineering

BCT Change Techniques Taxonomie

Classification system for systematically organizing evidence-based behavior change techniques (BCTs) to plan, describe, and evaluate interventions.

The BCT taxonomy (Behavior Change Techniques) is a behavioral science classification system that standardizes the description of recurring, observable techniques used to change behavior.
Emerging
Medium

Classification

  • Medium
  • Organizational
  • Architectural
  • Intermediate

Technical context

CMDB / service registryenterprise architecture toolingdata governance and metadata systems

Principles & goals

Clear term definitions before technical implementationChoose the minimally necessary granularityExplicitly define and enforce governance rules
Discovery
Team, Domain

Use cases & scenarios

Compromises

  • Over-governance from overly rigid categories
  • Inconsistent usage without clear policies
  • Taxonomy becoming outdated due to lack of maintenance
  • build iteratively instead of big-bang
  • involve stakeholders early and document decisions
  • support automatic mapping from inventory data

I/O & resources

  • system inventory and service catalog
  • process and organization documentation
  • stakeholder interviews and domain terms
  • taxonomy glossary and category tree
  • mapping table of systems to categories
  • governance policies and role matrix

Description

The BCT taxonomy (Behavior Change Techniques) is a behavioral science classification system that standardizes the description of recurring, observable techniques used to change behavior. It helps teams plan interventions consistently, document them precisely, and evaluate them comparably by providing shared terminology and categories for techniques such as goal setting, feedback, self-monitoring, or reinforcement. This improves communication between research and practice and increases traceability of interventions in organizations and digital products.

✔

  • Improved cross-domain communication
  • Better prioritization of modernization projects
  • Clearer responsibilities and interfaces

✖

  • Not all business requirements can be strictly categorized
  • Maintenance effort increases with granularity
  • May initially cause resistance in the organization

  • taxonomy coverage

    percentage of systems/services assigned to a category.

  • number of governance exceptions

    number of approved deviations from taxonomy rules per quarter.

  • time to decision

    average time from request to decision for classification questions.

Onboarding improved activation rate

A team structured onboarding interventions using BCTs (e.g., goal setting, feedback) and could test variants more systematically.

Change program becomes comparable

Multiple initiatives were described via BCTs, making overlaps visible and gaps actionable.

Intervention library for teams

An internal playbook mapped proven interventions to BCT categories, improving reuse and consistency.

1

scoping: identify relevant domains and stakeholders

2

design initial taxonomy and validate with core team

3

rollout, training and embed in governance processes

⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks

  • undocumented legacy mappings
  • manual mapping without automation
  • dependencies on outdated integrations
unclear ownershipinconsistent terminologylack of tool support
  • treating taxonomy as static document instead of living artifact
  • using taxonomy to assign blame instead of clarifying
  • forcing categorization of heterogeneous requirements
  • confusing concept and implementation level
  • unclear criteria for category assignment
  • lack of alignment with data and integration teams
domain knowledge (business & IT)enterprise architecture principlesstakeholder facilitation and moderation
Clarity about domain boundariesReduction of interface complexitySupport for migration and modernization decisions
  • • organizational willingness to change
  • • availability of domain experts
  • • technical integration capability of systems