METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SCORING AND RANKING A PLURALITY OF RELATIONSHIPS IN COMPONENTS OF SOCIO-TECHNICAL SYSTEM

• US 20080288587A1
• Filed: 05/18/2007
• Published: 11/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Williams, Clay E., Wegman, Mark N., Helander, Mary E., Cantor, Murray R., Ehrlich, Kate, Bahrs, Peter C., Valetto, Giuseppe, Chulani, Sunita, McAllister, Sarah C.
• Granted Patent: US 8,260,642 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A method and system for scoring and ranking a plurality of component links in a social technical system having a plurality of components representing people and objects are provided. In one aspect, a degree of consistency relative to two or more people working on one or more objects and dependencies between the objects is determined to derive scores for the component links. The method and system identifies gaps in the link and determines the impact of filling the gaps. In another aspect, component links may be ranked and scores aggregated to provide system level quantifications.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of scoring a plurality of component links in a socio technical system having a plurality of components representing people and objects, the plurality of components links representing a plurality of relationships between the plurality of components, comprising:

determining a measure of consistency relative to a network of people components and a network of object components in a socio technical system, the network of people components including components representing people and one or more links between the components representing people, and the network of object components including components representing objects worked on by at least some of the components representing people and one or more links between the components representing objects; and

determining a measure of contribution to the measure of consistency for one or more links between said components, based on presence or absence of said one or more links in the social technical system,

wherein the measure of contribution and the measure of consistency can be used for analyzing and structuring work group in a project.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining a measure of consistency includes determining a measure of consistency relative to two or more people in the network of people components working on a same object in the network of object components.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining a measure of consistency includes determining a measure of consistency relative to two or more people in the network of people components each working on an object and dependencies between said each object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining a measure of consistency further includes aggregating said measure of consistency determined for all components and component links in the socio-technical system to determine a system level measure of consistency.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining a measure of contribution includes:

identifying patterns and anti-patterns within the plurality of components based on a set of expected patterns in relationships between the plurality of components in the socio technical system; and

assigning a measure of contribution to each of said plurality of component links based on said identified patterns and anti-patterns.

6. The method of claim 1, further including:

identifying a weighing factor for said one or more links between said components, the weighing factor being dependent on a degree to which expected links exist;

adjusting the measure of contribution for said one or more links between said components based on the identified weighing factor.

7. The method of claim 1, further including:

identifying a weighing factor for each of said component links, the weighing factor being dependent on an estimation of complexity of joining nodes;

adjusting the measure of contribution based on the identified weighing factor.

8. The method of claim 1, further including:

identifying a weighing factor for each of said component links, the weighing factor being dependent on one or more attributes of one or more adjoining components; and

;

adjusting the measure of contribution based on the identified weighing factor.

9. The method of claim 1, further including:

determining the measure of contribution for each of the plurality of component links; and

ranking the measure of contribution.

10. The method of claim 1, further including:

determining a measure of consistency, measure of contribution, and rank for one or more subsets of components in the socio technical network.

11. The method of claim 1, further including:

identifying one or more component link gaps between one or more components;

determining an impact of filling said one or more component link gaps.

12. The method of claim 1, further including:

identifying one or more component link gaps between one or more components;

determining an importance factor associated with said one or more component link gaps.

13. The method claim 1, wherein the step of determining a measure of consistency includes:

identifying expected patterns in relationships between people components based on relationships between one or more object components;

observing actual patterns in relationships between people components; and

determining a measure of consistency based on said expected patterns and said actual patterns.

14. A computer implemented method of determining a score for a plurality of component links in a social technical system having a plurality of components representing people and objects, comprising:

selecting a component link from a plurality of component links;

assigning a score to the selected link based on one or more scores of a subset of other links and components; and

processing said component link according to the score.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the processing step includes ranking said component links according to their scores.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the processing step includes presenting said component links according to their scores.

17. The method of claim 14, further including:

generating an initial estimate of a rank for each of the component links;

updating the estimate of a rank for each of the component links using analytics derived from a reference pattern, the reference pattern including expected links among the components; and

processing the component links according to the respective updated ranks.

18. A system for scoring a plurality of component links in a socio technical system having a plurality of components representing people and objects, the plurality of components links representing a plurality of relationships between the plurality of components, comprising:

means for determining a measure of consistency relative to a network of people components and a network of object components in a socio technical system, the network of people components including components representing people and one or more links between the components representing people, and the network of object components including components representing objects worked on by at least some of the components representing people and one or more links between the components representing objects; and

means for determining a measure of contribution to the measure of consistency for one or more links between said components, based on presence or absence of said one or more links in the social technical system,

wherein the measure of contribution and the measure of consistency can be used for analyzing and structuring work group in a project.

19. The system of claim 18, further including means for ordering said measure of contribution determined for the plurality of component links into ranks.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the network of people components are represented in a socio plane and the network of object components are represented in a technical plane of the socio technical system.