Oracal of bacon and social networking analysis final

Presented by Maria Murphy Horrigan Account Director Health and Human Services Regional lead for Business Analysis ABAA ACT Events/Comms Coordinator 11 Dec 2008 Social Networking Analysis, Communication & the “Oracle of Bacon”

Slideshare and blogs www.abaa.org.au www.barocks.com www.slideshare.com/murph

Clichés or Truisms? “ It’s a small world”

Clichés or Truisms? “ It’s not what you know; it’s who you know”

Clichés or Truisms? “ Business is built on relationships”

Clichés or Truisms? “ We’re living in a networked world”

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

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) Trust Who do you trust? Friendship Who is your friend? Conflict Who is a blocker or gatekeeper?

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

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 way Maps and measures relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, web sites, and other information/knowledge processing entities

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?

Obama & Me Me & Obama = 3 Degrees

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

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?

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 Properties Centralisation Density or concentration Size

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

Degree, Betweenness, and Closeness Centrality. "Kite Network" developed by David Krackhardt - http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html

Centrality in the Network Degree 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

Centrality in the Network Betweenness 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

Centrality in the Network Closeness 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

Communication By 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)

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)

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)

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

Fin Maria (Murphy) Horrigan Account Director Health & Human Services Regional Lead Business Analysis Email: mhorrigan@smsmt.com Blog: www.barocks.com www.slideshare.com/murph www.smsmt.com www.twitter.com/miahorri

Oracal of bacon and social networking analysis final

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