@Monika, the first step is to search for existing ontologies and vocabularies, really. You may find interesting Linked Open Vocabularies (LOV) (http://lov.okfn.org/dataset/lov/search/). However, if you decide to build ontology from scratch you should stick to any well documented methodology, for example NeON methodology (http://mayor2.dia.fi.upm.es/oeg-upm/index.php/en/methodologies/59-neon-methodology) or simpler approach Ontology Development 101 (http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/people/dlm/papers/ontology-tutorial-noy-mcguinness-abstract.html)
Agree with Marcin. Although, you should study the domain, its essence and IRS users. All these in order to evaluate the usefulness of an existing vocabulary.