A popular approach for understanding complex systems is a network analytic one: the system’s entities and their interactions are represented by a graph structure such that readily available methods suitable for graph structures can be applied. A network representation of a system enables the analysis of indirect effects: if A has an impact on B, and B has an impact on C, then, A also has an impact on C. This is often due to some kind of process flowing through the network, for example, pieces of informations or viral infections in social systems, passenger flows in transportation systems, or traded goods in economic systems. We argue that taking into account the actual usage of the system additionally to the static network representation of the system can yield interesting insights: first, the network representation and applicable network methods cannot be chosen independently from the network process of interest (Borgatti 2005; Dorn et al. 2012; Zweig 2016; Butts 2009). Therefore, focussing on the relevant network process in an early stage of the research project helps to determine suitable network representations and methods in order to obtain meaningful results (we call this approach process-driven network analysis). Second, many network methods assume that the spreading of some entity follows shortest or random paths. However, we show that not all flows are well approximated by this. In these cases, incorporating the network usage creates a real addition of knowledge to the static aggregated network representation.NoteThis is an extended and revised version of a conference article (Bockholt and Zweig 2019), published and presented at COMPLEX NETWORKS 2019.

中文翻译：

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进行流程驱动的网络分析

一种理解复杂系统的流行方法是网络分析方法：系统的实体及其相互作用由图形结构表示，因此可以应用适用于图形结构的易得方法。系统的网络表示可以分析间接影响：如果A对B有影响，B对C有影响，那么A对C也有影响。这通常是由于某种过程通过网络流动，例如信息片段或病毒感染在社会系统中，在运输系统中的客流或在经济系统中的贸易货物。我们认为，除了系统的静态网络表示之外，还要考虑系统的实际使用情况可以产生有趣的见解：首先，不能独立于感兴趣的网络过程来选择网络表示和适用的网络方法（Borgatti 2005； Dorn等人，2012年； Zweig，2016年；巴茨，2009年）。因此，流程驱动的网络分析）。其次，许多网络方法假定某些实体的扩展遵循最短或随机路径。但是，我们证明并非所有流量都可以由此很好地近似。在这些情况下，合并网络使用情况会为静态聚合的网络表示形式真正增加知识。注意这是会议文章（Bockholt和Zweig 2019）的扩展和修订版本，已在COMPLEX NETWORKS 2019上发布和介绍。