The Delphi Technique

The Delphi Technique was originally conceived as a way to obtain the opinion of experts without necessarily bringing them together face to face. It was developed as a forecasting methodology. Later, the U.S. government enhanced it as a group decision-making tool. In recent times, however, it has taken on an all new meaning and purpose.

The Delphi Technique can be used to:
 Develop a number of alternatives.
 Assess the social and economic impacts of rapids community growth.
 Explore underlying assumptions or background information leading to different judgments.
 Seek out information on which agreement may later be generated.
 Correlate informed judgments on a subject involving many disciplines.
 Educate respondents on the diverse and interrelated elements of a topic.

The Delphi begins with the initial development of a questionnaire focusing on the identified problem. An appropriate respondent group is selected, and then the questionnaire is mailed to them. Each participant answers the questionnaire independently and returns it. The initiators of the questionnaire summarize responses, and then develop a feedback summary and a second questionnaire for the same respondent group. After reviewing the feedback summary, respondents independently rate priority ideas included in the second questionnaire, then mail back the responses. The process is repeated until investigators feel positions are firm and agreement on a topic is reached. A final summary report is issued to the respondent group.

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