Since development workers often introduce new laws, systems, approaches, etc. in developing countries, they inevitably have to manage stakeholders affected by the program. There are several tools available to analyze the role and relationship of stakeholders as part of a social network and how actors may be positioned to influence the outcome of a project.

A social network  is commonly defined as a social structure made of actors such as individuals, organizations, groups, etc. In terms of network theory, they are called "vertices" or "nodes." The vertices can be isolated in a network or connected to other vertexes through "edges" or connections between actors based on interdependencies such as friendship, professional affiliation, conflicting priorities, etc.

An excellent opensource and free program to visualize and analyze networks is NodeXL by Microsoft Research and a group of universities. NodeXL is a template for Excel 2007 (it does not work in openoffice). You can easily customize the graph’s appearance; zoom, scale and pan the graph; dynamically filter vertices and edges; alter the graph’s layout; find clusters of related vertices; and calculate a set of graph metrics.

Below is a screenshots of an NodeXL graph. You can download the program here. Please click here for an overview of graphs that NodeXL can produce.

Below: Part of a network of companies holding ICRP and the LGSTA IQCs (USAID) is shown in the graph based on degrees (the more relationships, the larger the sphere in the network). Other indicators such as "in between closeness" are available.