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Presented by Maria Murphy HorriganAccount Director Health and Human ServicesRegional lead for Business AnalysisABAA ACT Events/Comms Coordinator11 Dec 2008

Social Networking Analysis,Communication & the “Oracle of Bacon”

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Slideshare and blogs

www.abaa.org.auwww.barocks.com

www.slideshare.com/murph

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Clichés or Truisms?

“It’s a small world”

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Clichés or Truisms?

“It’s not what you know; it’s who you know”

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Clichés or Truisms?

“Business is built on relationships”

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Clichés or Truisms?

“We’re living in a networked world”

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We are a networked world We need to understand those involved with our

projects Their wants, needs, behaviour, attitudes,

expectations, motivations Relationships between them

Wants, needs, perceptions are both a reflection of individual requirements but also of the context and those who influence them

Politics What else is happening that may affect project

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Multiplicity of networks Official versus Unofficial Examples

Advice“Who do you go to for advice?” “Who goes to you for advice?”

Collaboration“Who do you collaborate with?”How do you collaborate (social media)

TrustWho do you trust?

FriendshipWho is your friend?

ConflictWho is a blocker or gatekeeper?

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Who’s who in the Zoo We need tools for understanding who’s who in

the zoo Understand the project background (strategy, objectives,

aims) Understand organisation background (people, culture,

technology, capability) Understand who is a primary, secondary and tertiary

stakeholder or target for our project Social network analysis

A way to look at the interactions & connections

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So what is Social Networking Analysis?Set of mathematical, graphical and theoretical

tools for modelling networks and their structures A lens for understanding the social world in a

relational wayMaps and measures relationships and flows

between people, groups, organizations, computers, web sites, and other information/knowledge processing entities

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How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer

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The Oracle of Bacon

What’s the Kevin Bacon number of Robert Di Nero?

Or in social networks language: What is the shortest path between Robert De Niro and Kevin Bacon?

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Obama & Me

Me & Obama = 3 Degrees

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Relevance to BAs Need to identify stakeholders and entities Identifying stakeholders in the project and my

relationship with them Once I’ve identified who I can then understand when I

need to involve them in what activities during the project

Projects happen within organisations Leadership & Power , Organisational Culture & Climate

What governance models to involve the right people

What happens when we view these through the lens of social network analysis

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Understanding Social Networks To understand networks and their participants, we

evaluate the location of actors in the network These measures give us insight into the various

roles and groupings in a network Gives insight into:

who are the connectors, experts, leaders, bridges, isolates? where are the clusters and who is in them? who is in the core or hub? who is on the periphery?

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Social Networks – Key Terms Nodes - people and groups Links - show relationships or flows between the nodes Attribute – name and value Relationship properties

Type of Relationship (e.g., friendship, advice)Direction of Relationship (directed vs undirected)Strength of Relationship (binary vs weighted)

Network PropertiesCentralisationDensity or concentrationSize

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Centralities reveal much about overall network structure

Very centralized network Dominated by one or a few very central nodes If these nodes are removed or damaged, the network quickly fragments & can become a single point of failure

Less centralized network Resilient in the face of many attacks or random failures Many nodes or links can fail while allowing the remaining nodes to still reach

each other. Boundary Spanners

Connect their group to others More central in the overall network than immediate neighbours Well-positioned to be innovators and have access to ideas and

information flowing in other clusters. Periphery of a network

May connect to networks that are not currently mapped Very important resources for fresh information not otherwise available

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Degree, Betweenness, and Closeness Centrality.

"Kite Network" developed by David Krackhardt - http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html

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Centrality in the NetworkDegree

Number of direct connections Hub has the most connections and authority gained when

other entities point to it It’s not -"the more connections, the better“ But where those connections lead to And how they connect the otherwise unconnected!

www.fmsasg.com/SocialNetworkAnalysis

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Centrality in the NetworkBetweenness

Great influence over what flows (and does not flow) Holds a lot power over the outcomes in a network Broker role if between two powerful constituents “ Location, Location, Location."

www.fmsasg.com/SocialNetworkAnalysis

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Centrality in the NetworkCloseness Shortest paths to all others (i.e close to everyone else) Gives quick access to others Excellent position to monitor the information flow Best visibility into what is happening in the network.

www.fmsasg.com/SocialNetworkAnalysis

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CommunicationBy knowing social network position & relationships I can

Leverage champions Understand who might be “blockers” or “gatekeepers” (tertiary

segmentation) Find people to go to in order to elicit information (find the

‘nodes’ in the network) So I don’t reinvent the wheel this allows me to quickly identify

who might know the answer, communicate with them, understand their lessons learned, improve likely success of the project

Know who to communicate key messages to in order for them to disseminate throughout the network (project communications)

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User Segmentation Segmentation – primary, secondary, tertiary Allows me to know what to do tailor discussions for each

segment to elicit the right requirements at the right level Once we identify who, we can create archetypes and

entities that represent networks within the networks Then create user-requirements based on the archetypal

users Then leverage for context diagrams and system interfaces,

requirements and design Help to build the picture of the process from end to end Then leverage for process-maps for business requirements

(BPMN and/or Use cases)

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We’re all connected Important for project Mapping these connections is easy, useful, tools

are available quantify relationships and properties Good for user, business and systems requirements Make them more robust, accurate, relevant to the

end product (systems FOR people not AT them)

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Take home messages Projects can be more successful if you take the

time to analyse the people and the relationships, connections between them

you’re not alone on your project – you’re probably only 4-6 degrees of separation away from someone who knows the answer

use social media, like blogs, linkedin, even twitter, are tools that can help you reach out to others in the BA community

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Fin

Maria (Murphy) Horrigan Account Director Health & Human Services

Regional Lead Business Analysis

Email: mhorrigan@smsmt.comBlog: www.barocks.com

www.slideshare.com/murphwww.smsmt.com

www.twitter.com/miahorri