Q 385. What is the Delphi Technique for creative problem solving? When would you prefer it over Nominal Group Technique?

 

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Delphi method was initially conceived in 1950s by Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey of RAND (Research and Development) Corporation. This name came from Oracle of Delphi, a priestess at a temple of Apollo in ancient Greece known for her prophecies. Delphi method allows experts to work towards a mutual agreement by series of questionnaires rounds and providing related feedback to further progress the discussion with each round. The experts' responses may change as rounds are completed based on the information put forward by other experts participating in the analysis. Flow of the Delphi method is as depicted hereunder :

 

Key Steps in Delphi method:

i)  Facilitator selects the team of experts based on the topic being covered

ii) Once all participants are confirmed, each participant is sent a questionnaire with instructions

iii)  Participants / Experts comment on each topic based on their personal opinions, experience, or previous research.

iv) The questionnaires are returned to the facilitator who groups the comments and prepares copies of the information.

v)  Collected comments are sent to each participant and they can comment further on the same

vi) At the end of each comment session, all questionnaires are returned to the facilitator

vii) Facilitator decides if another round is necessary or if the results are ready for publishing

viii) The questionnaire rounds may be repeated any number of times as necessary to achieve a general consensus.

ix) Conclude the final result / outcome of the process

 

In contrary to Delphi method, Nominal group technique (NGT) is a structured method for group brainstorming that encourages contributions from everyone and facilitates quick agreement on the relative importance of issues, problems, or solutions. Here the team members start by writing down their ideas, then selecting which idea they judge is the best. Once team members are ready, everyone shares their favorite idea, and the suggestions are discussed and prioritized by group using a point system. NGT consolidates the importance ratings of individual group members into the final weighted priorities of the group.

 

When NGT is used ?

·        Some group members are much more vocal than other group members

·        Some group members has the tendency to think better in silence

·        There is concern about some members not participating in discussion

·        The group does not generate quantities of ideas comfortably

·        Some of the group members or all members are new

·        The issue is controversial or there is heated conflict or disagreement

 

Steps in NGT :

 

When Delphi Technique is preferred over Nominal Group Technique (NGT) :

i) When the decision to be taken are strategic in nature and lot of scenarios and subjectivity is involved before reaching to the final consensus. E.g. Mergers and Acquisitions of companies, New Product Development, Foraying into new Geographies and segments for Existing Product Penetration.

ii) Complex Problem which needs opinions from the experts from the different fields. E.g. Staring a new company, Choosing a career option, Doing a large investment in any company / sector.

iii) When its not possible to interact face to face and experts are located across the different parts of the world. E.g. Building the vaccine during the Corona-virus pandemic, Organisation of any big event such as Olympics, Commonwealth games.

iv) When there are severe consequences of the decision going wrong and there is no room of error. You want it right first time anyhow. E.g. Final of any big event like Olympics, World Cup, treatment of the patient in ICU / at last stage etc.

v) When an innovative / new product to be launched within the shorter time period / timelines. E.g. Adoption of New technology – Mahindra moving to Electric Vehicle Segment,  Amazon moving to E Commerce Sector / Cloud Segment with AWS etc.

Delphi Technique is a systematic consensus building method for a problem or future event by generating opinions and forecasts which involves structured interaction with a group of experts. Uses a highly engaged communication process in allowing a group of experts to participate in problem solving. This is used in combination or by itself for decision making mostly in organisations that are geographically diverse.

RAND corporation invented this technique to forecast the impact of technology on warfare.

 

Advantages:

·       This technique generates number of independent judgements without face to face meeting

·       It leverages resources across geographies and departments

·       Investment of time and cost related to face to face meetings is avoided

·       Experts can adjust their answer each round based on group response

·       Addressing three main problems with Focus groups and/or brainstorming –

o    dominant personalities,

o    Group pressure, ideas are overrun and subverted by the group,

o    noise as it’s difficult to keep focus group on topic

o    Sometimes conclusions and ideas deviate from the objective

 

Disadvantages:

·       As this process is time consuming, it cannot be used for situations that require speedy decision.

·       Expert opinion is a belief that may or may not be true

·       Does not develop the rich array of alternatives

·       Consensus does not always mean the correct answer, Common ‘everybody agrees’ so may be this is right. Even if everybody agrees, the solution is wrong

·       Internal validity or reliability is largely unknown

·       Lacks the advantages of live discussion – understanding and assessing each view point

 

Planning and considerations of Delphi Study

Due to lack of single methodology and lack of guidance, proper planning is critical. Following needs to be planned:

·       Understanding the need – What problem it solves and why do we need it

·       Design of the survey tool – as communication is survey based, selecting a proper tool that is easy and reliable is important. Followed by pilot test of the tool for its reliability and validity

·       Size of expert panel

·       Implication on lack of anonymity

·       Level of consensus – Definition and rules on how consensus will be arrived based on data/information from the survey.

·       Timeline – Usually takes 2 weeks between rounds, so consider a larger timeline for entire process

 

Delphi Workflow: Following steps involved in the process:

1.    Problem indications - A precise and comprehensive definition of the problem

2.    Select facilitator - A neutral person, familiar with subject, knows process of data collection and analysis

3.    Select experts - 15-20 experts who have knowledge and experience, capacity and willingness, sufficient time to participate

4.    Round 1 - Questionnaire - Open ended questions (4-5) for idea generation. Can be replaced with focus groups or face to face interview

5.    Qualitative analysis - Ideas collated, summarised, and grouped based on similar viewpoints

6.    Round 2 - Questionnaire - Closed ended questions created based on information from round 1. Ranked based on importance and agreement, and sent back to experts for feedback

7.    Consensus? Else, repeat round - Rules of consensus is prerequisite to initiative DT. Continue rounds till consensus is obtained. 70% response rate preferred.

8.    Conclusion & Inference - Rank statements reached consensus from high to low. Use descriptive techniques such as plots for Inference.

 

 

Before we look at uses of Delphi and Nominal Techniques, lets understand Nominal Group Technique in Brief:

 

This is a group brainstorming process that encourages participation from everyone. Effective way of pooled judgement or decisions in a group that meets face to face. This technique can generate many creative ideas. It allows every member of the group to express their ideas while minimising the influence of the other participants.

A common challenge of Nominal group technique is managing discussions. Discussion if not balanced, conversation may turn into argument. Facilitator should remember that the primary purpose is clarification and not to resolve difference of opinions

Advantages of Nominal Technique: 

·       Decision-making process is shorter

·       Participants know each other, they get opportunity for equal participation

·       Distractions avoided

·       Ideas are visible to all

Steps involved in Nominal Technique:

·       Generate: Objective shared and discussed to generate as many ideas as possible

·       Record: Members record their ideas and share

·       Discussion: Each recorded idea discussed to determine clarity and importance

·       Voting: Participants vote on ideas, and help prioritise

 

When do we use these techniques:

 

Use of Delphi Technique

Use of Nominal Technique

Recap of Delphi Technique: Expert ideas taken anonymously and passed around the group until a consensus is met. Participants are physically distant, no interaction between the experts, individual response is recorded, and consensus is arrived.   ·      To get consensus in a large group where difference of opinion may not resolve through discussions ·       To shortlist priorities, usually for future events ·       Develop policy - When there is no clear-cut resolution of a given policy issue ·       To avoid investment of time and cost related to face to face meetings ·       If decision making involves people from all geographies, various departments ·       To build consensus for a particular group ·       Should only be used on absence of Analytical technique ·       When we have longer duration for decision making as this technique takes time

Recap of Nominal Technique: Allows each member to write down and present the idea to the group, ideas made visible to all. Participants get to know each other as they meet face to face. Ideas are ranked and consensus made.   ·       To generate lot of ideas ·       To allow group thinking specially for introverts and extroverts - some groups are vocal, some think in silence ·       Where members do not participate in surveys ·       If group does not generate ideas (normally) ·       If some team members are new to the group ·       When you want to identify priorities and select few alternatives ·       When time available for consensus is short and needs immediate implementation

 

 

Conclusion:

 

As a lean six sigma consultant, we are always faced with problems that needs out of the box thinking, fresh perspective, innovative solutions. It’s important to use “Divergent” and “Convergent” thinking to do this. Divergent thinking allows generation of lot of potential ideas, solutions and possibilities which is commonly known as brainstorming. While convergent thinking involves evaluating those options and choosing more relevant one.

 

We must consider using combination of these two methods to develop new ideas and solutions. As using just one-way thinking could lead to unbalanced or biased decision. Hence combination of Delphi with Nominal technique would be ideal by leveraging its strengths, which also includes brainstorming to allow maximum innovative ideas with deeper understanding of its capabilities.

Both Nominal Group Technique and Delphi Techniques are consensus methods used in problem solving, idea generation and prioritization.

 

Nominal Group Technique involves 4 stages

1) Silent Generation
The group is usually sent questions (one or two) well in advance.  The group is given some time to record their
individual ideas to the given questions

2) Round Robin
Facilitator will ask the group members to share their ideas to the group one by one.  In the interim, participating members can think of new ideas and share them when they get a turn to share them.  This is continued till ideas are exhausted.

3) Clarification
All ideas are discussed for pariticipants understanding, partipants may or may not agree on ideas.  All ideas are grouped and duplicate ideas are removed.   

4) Voting
All participating members then participate in multivoting and provide their scores for prioritization of ideas & solutions.

Delphi Technique
Delphi Technique is also a highly structured group interaction like Nominal Group Technique.  The interactions happen
between the panel members and group members via a set of questionnaire instead of face to face communications.

The questionnaires are shared to all respondents (Group of experts), the questionnaires are group of statements and
respondents are asked to rate them, comment, explain them and also disagree on the statements given.

The panel members collate the responses of the first questionnaire and they use them to create the
second questionnaire.  The ratings are evaluated along with the comments provided by the respondents
to frame the next questionnaire.  The process continues.

 

The number of questionnaires or survey is decided by the panel and the decision as to when consensus
has to be reached is made at the the beginning.

 

Preference of Delphi over Nominal Group Technique
Both the techniques rely on a system of iteration or rounds - the questionnaires in Delphi Technique and
discussion structure in Nominal Group Technique.  Both require moderators, however role of Delphi moderators
are higher if Nominal Group Technique is considered. 

 

Nominal group technique is used to make small to medium sized decisions as it can be performed quickly
and relies on the knowledge of participants.  However, Delphi requires weeks of going back between panelists and decision makers, sufficient time is available with participants for submitting key information. Hence, it makes it perfect to address important issues which require a thorough examination options and expertize.

 

Delphi Technique is a problem solving methodology based on discussion of Expert. Planning is most important aspect of problem solving. This technique help to understand future event which impact your outcome.

 

In this technique group of expert exchange their views and give their assumptions to facilitator who again review the process and share output. This process continues till the all reach consensus.

 

This process has done in stepwise manner as per below steps

 

1.     Choose the facilitator

 

This is first step of the process. Facilitator should be identified in the organization. During the selection of facilitator ensure that person must be aware about the data and research link to the topic.

 

2.     Identify the experts.

 

This is important steps for the identification of Panel. The Panel may include the different People form different area like customer, Supplier or People from your projects. But ensure that the selected Panel must have knowledge and expertise in the topic.

 

3.     Define the Problem

 

Start the discussion on the Problem, ensure that you must give background of the problem to the Panel with precise and comprehensive data.

 

4.     Asking the questions.

 

In this step you can start asking the questions to the Panel. This questions can be done in survey mode or questionnaire. You can do it in 3 round starting with general question in first round and summarize the result. Then you proceed deeper questions on specific issues with focusing to remove areas looking with common ground. In last round you can focus on decision making with questionnaire for common agreement.

 

You can continue to more round also if required.

 

5.      Act on your finding.

 

As you receive the findings. Focus on Analyze the same and Put your plan in place to work on the solving the problem.

 

 

Advantage of Delphi Technique over Nominal Group Technique

 

1.      It Allows collection of expert view as compare to Nominal group technique for problem solving.

2.      Delphi technique allows to integrate each ideas as compare to Nominal group technique where the focus on ranking of Ideas.

3.      Discussion happens with expert view as round happens to deeper discussion as compare to Nominal group technique where no way to identify why individual voted for the idea.

It is very important to think as a Project Manager what future events may impact our projects. These events may be positive or negative, so understanding them allows us to prepare, and plan accordingly to deal with them. But how can we forecast the future with any degree of certainty? This is where Delphi Technique can be useful.

The Delphi Technique helps in estimating the likelihood and outcome of future events. This technique is conducted with a Facilitator asking a group of experts where they exchange their views, and each independently provides with their estimates and assumptions to a facilitator who then reviews the data, prepares and issues a summary report. The group member’s then conducts round of discussion among themselves for reviewing the summary report and again provide their updated forecasts to the facilitator, who will then again review the Submitted responses and prepares the second report and issues the same to the Experts. This process continues until all participants reaches a consensus.
The experts at each round are aware of a full record of what forecasts other experts have made, but they are unaware who made which forecast. This technique is an iterative process, and helps in having a range of opinions from the group of experts.

The purpose is to clarify and expand the issues, identify the areas of agreement or disagreement and reach consensus among the Experts. History of Delphi Method
The Delphi method was first developed at Rand Corporation by Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey and was given the name “Oracle of Delphi”. This method helped experts to conduct the questionnaires in series and collect feedback with other rounds.
Steps of Delphi Method

Step 1: Choose a Facilitator

The first step in performing Delphi Technique is to choose the facilitator. This role can be carried out by ourselves, or we decide to find a neutral person within our organization. It is very useful to have someone that is familiar with research and data collection.

Step 2: Identify Your Experts

This technique relies on a panel of experts. An expert can be any individual from within our organization or industry or can even be our Customer or our Project team with relevant knowledge and experience of a particular topic.

Step 3: Define the Problem

What is the problem or issue we are seeking to understand? The experts should be aware of what problem they are commenting on, to ensure that they provide a precise and comprehensive solution.

Step 4: Round One Questions

We should start with asking general questions to the Experts to gain a broad understanding of their views on future events. Questionnaire or survey can be used for asking Questions. Once, the feedback is received, we should collate and summarize the responses, removing any feedback which is irrelevant and look only for common viewpoints.

Step 5: Round Two Questions

Based on the responses received to the first question, the next questions should further delve deeper into the topic to get clarity on the specific issues. Questionnaire or survey can again be used for asking Questions. Once again the responses received are collated and results are summarized, removing any irrelevant material and looking for the common ground. The only purpose is to get on the Consensus among the Experts.

Step 6: Round Three Questions

The final questionnaire helps to focus on supporting decision making. What is it the experts are all agreed upon the area of Agreement?

Further, we may wish to have more than three rounds of questioning to reach a closer consensus.

Step 7: Act on Our Findings

After many round of questions, it is believed that experts must have reached a consensus and they will have a view of future events. Then we must analyze the findings and put plans in place to deal with future risks and opportunities to our project.

When would Delphi Technique preferred over Nominal Group Technique?

 

The Delphi technique is preferred over nominal group technique as it helps in isolated generation of ideas, considers all the opinions of each group member, Proactive search behavior for solutions, Problem complexity is Addressed in the process. Large number of people can participate in the Discussion.

 

In a competitive business environment today, business always seek to the expertise advice and appropriate solution to identify and mitigate the business risk.

Delphi Technique is a qualitative research technique or also termed as Risk identification tool, originally conceived by Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey.

It is a participation technique involving iterative process where we try to seek advice and try to incorporate others point of views with the aim of getting subject matter experts to reach consensus.

Thus it’s a survey method where we ask the experts series of questions and these experts (may or may not be the project team members) have to share their opinions anonymously. We can evaluate their opinions with the project team.

Thus Delphi Technique is a method that allows experts to respond to questions to reach other until reaching agreement on an issue.

However, to drive such discussions with the experts, there are 2 key challenges;

1.      Experts difficult to have physical meeting

2.      Experts might affect by dominant individuals

Hence to overcome these challenges, a series of questions delivered to participants via email. This also provides anonymity to participants, thereby encouraging idea generation and reduce dominance by a particular individual.

Implementation of Delphi Technique;

Although there can be variations on how the method can be applied, there are always certain common distinct characteristics

1.      Choose a facilitator

2.      Identify and select a group of experts

            ü  The selected participants must be experts in that field and must have great interest. Besides the technique required to form a                       group of multilateral, they are responsible for giving, collecting, analyzing and summarizing information.

 3.      Create a list of questions to a problem you trying to solve

        ü  Moderators will need to set questions related to the risks which needs to be identified and these questions are sent to the participants.

4.      Send the questions to the experts anonymously.

5.      Collect feedback, analyze and compile information. Create another set of questions that will bring all the experts to one point of view.

            ü  The process of Delphi Technique goes through 2 or more sequential rounds. The moderators will monitor, manage, and analyze                   the feedback along the process.

 

o   Round 1. Participants answer the open end questions and submit to the moderators in the specific time given. Moderators need to convert the collected information into well structure questionnaire.

o   Round 2. Participants receive the questions modified in the first round. In this stage participants required to make a rating of 1 to 10 according to priorities among items. Moderators collect the response, analyze it and make a summary.

o   Round 3/4. Participants receive the rating summary along with a summary chart. Participants identity the area of agreement and disagreement. Participants are also asked to revise their judgment and specify the reasons for remaining outside the consensus.

The responses are analyzed and summarized and feedback to participants for reactions until participants reach an agreement.

 

While Delphi Technique is suitable for small group discussions, discourages domination in decision making process, ranking methods are utilized and enables virtual meetings, the below differences would help us understand and decide when to prefer Delphi Technique over Nominal Group Technique;

 

Delphi Technique	Nominal Group Technique
The participants of group discussions must have certain level of knowledge towards discussions topic to ensure the quality of idea generated	Anyone can be the participants as long as they are involved in the discussions
Can be quite slow and time consuming process. Not only slower than face to face meetings but also the time taken to reach consensus takes a longer time as compared to Nominal Group Technique as iterations need to undergo to ensure the best quality of the questionnaire to obtain the best result in identifying risk	Time taken to reach consensus is short in order to identify the risk as soon as possible in the discussion after considering everyone’s opinion.
There is passive communication as the decision making is on questionnaire results. Anonymity is present to encourage cooperation of the participants in answering questionnaire and to avoid replications among individual panelist	Decision making is based on face to face communication. The anonymity does not exist as the identity of the participants is exposed during the discussion.

 

Delphi Technique:

 

The Delphi Technique of problem solving is a structured group communication processes which is based on the principle that decision or forecast from a group are generally more accurate than those from individuals or the unstructured groups.

 

In Delphi Technique, the group of the experts answers questionnaires in two or more rounds. After each round, the facilitator collects the questionnaires, summarizes the comments including the reasons of the judgements and publish the summarize information. Multiple rounds facilitate/encourage the experts to revise their earlier answers with view of other members of the expert group. This complete process narrow downs the range of answers and which leads to correct answer.  

 

A key feature of the Delphi technique is that the participating experts remain anonymous at all times so that the decisions of experts are not influenced by the status of other expert members of the group.

 

Nominal Group Techniques are generally used for less consequential decisions. These can be performed quickly and relies on the knowledge of participant. On the other hand the Delphi technique may require weeks of going back and forth between experts and decision-makers. This technique is perfect for addressing high-stakes issues which require a thorough examination of options and expertise.

 

The Delphi Technique is preferred over nominal group techniques when we do not have any true or knowable answers such as decision-making, policy, or long-range forecasting. It is widely used in Business Forecasting. It is also preferred over nominal group techniques in the field of rapid changes.

Delphi technique is a technique that was created by Olaf Helmer and Norman Dalkey of the prestigious think tank Rand Corporation in the 1950’s to forecast the impact of technology on warfare. The name of the technique refers to the oracle of Delphi a priestess in ancient Greece who gave prophecies and advice. The goal of this method is to arrive at expert consensus.

The Delphi technique makes use of experts who answer questionnaires anonymously, they then receive feedback of the group response in the form of statistical representative. This process repeats itself in rounds, and the questions in each round are based upon the answers from the previous round. In each round, participants rank their responses by the order of priority. This continues till the range of answers reduces to something that looks like expert consensus.

Nominal Group Technique is similar to Delphi Technique in that it also uses rounds, the main difference is the questionnaire in Delphi and the discussions in NGT. But the similarities between the two are cosmetic as NGT is used in less important decisions that require prior decisions while Delphi Technique uses expert opinions for important decisions with higher stakes and can take considerable amount of time to get to expert consensus.

 

Source: https://www.rand.org/topics/delphi-method.html

https://landing.directorpoint.com/blog/delphi-and-ngt-decision-techniques/

If you traverse through the different phases of DMAIC, your are likely to find several tools and methods for Define, Measure and Analyze phases. When we reach the improve phase and look for tools for identifying solutions, one method that comes up in most people's mind is "Brainstorming".

 

The "Brainstorming" though a very popular and widely applied method, is also known for certain drawbacks. Several improvements have been considered and evolved as methods for creative identification of solutions. The Nominal Group Technique (NGT) and Delphi technique are amongst such methods.

 

NGT is a method by which we can generate solutions as well as evaluate them, whereas the Delphi technique is mostly considered as a method for evaluating alternate solutions.

 

The NGT requires the participants to provide their ideas on a slip of paper, often referred to as 'Silent idea generation'. The advantage in NGT is that it promotes participation of all members and overcomes the domination and influencing that usually occur in traditional brainstorming. Once the ideas are collected from all the participants, they are discussed for clarifications among the group. All participants are also involved in scoring the ideas for arriving at the prioritized ones.

 

The main focus of Delphi technique is to engage subject matter experts (often referred as "Panel of Experts") for the specific topics under consideration to evaluate multiple ideas and to finally decide upon the best solution to a problem. The relevant multiple experts are identified, maybe at different geographical locations, but each one is provided the inputs anonymously. For this reason, it is sometimes referred to as "Secret Ballot". After the inputs are received from each of the expert, the questions relating to the problem solution may be refined and subjected to subsequent rounds before arriving at a final decision.

 

Delphi technique as compared to NGT:

• May be used for problems that need specific expert opinions and especially if there is a likely hood for difference of opinions between the experts. The idea of maintaining anonymity between the experts is to avoid possible bias and conflicts. In this way, it differs from NGT, where all the ideas once received are discussed amongst the participants and no anonymity is maintained. 
• May not be friendly for solutions that are required quickly, since it usually takes time to contact experts and obtain their inputs with multiple rounds, in comparison to NGT, where we could reach a decision faster.
• Helps in evaluation of ideas and is not an ideal tool to generate the ideas, whereas by using NGT, we can generate ideas as well as evaluate them.
• Does not need face to face meetings and interactions which are important aspects for NGT. Delphi technique encourages diverse thinking and even conflicting opinions.
• May be used to estimate likely hood and outcome of future events, with high levels of uncertainty

Delphi technique is a qualitative method ( frequently used in LONG RANGE FORECASTING ) of discussing a probelm wherein say the memberss those are working in a project share there personal opinions / ideas on a particular agenda of discussion . The viewpoints of each of the memebers involved in panel discussion are carefully noticed & the panel comes to a conclusion considering all the points .

Delphi Technique for Creative Problem Solving

The Delphi technique is a research design used to obtain a consensus of opinion of experts especially in places where the data is incomplete or missing. It originated in the 1950s and was funded by the USAF and developed by the RAND Corporation. It was originally used by a multi-disciplinary group of experts to forecast the effects of future warfare on the United States. It is generally used in areas where little published information is available. The process is a series of questions interspersed with feedback of the collated information by the moderator.

The main features of the technique are:

1. It requires a group of experts in the relevant field.
2. A series of rounds where information is given back to the participants for reconsideration or strengthening of their point of view
3. Anonymous participation is essential.
4. It is focussed on the future.
5. It is a consensus-based research methodology with the goal of developing a consensus among an anonymous group of experts as to the future best solutions.

 

Some of the earlier areas where the Delphi Technique has been successfully used are in areas such as calculating the number of bombs that Russia would need to drop on the United States to destabilize the U. S. infrastructure? To test the validity of this technique as a method for prediction, participants were asked questions such as “What is the surface of the Moon in thousand square miles?” or “What is the area in square miles of Los Angeles County?” (Brown & Helmer, p. 3). Over the years the Delphi Technique has found greater use in medical research, based on the number of articles published. Its unique methodology to focus on the future has also made it popular in many other fields. With the exponential and unprecedented increase in knowledge and technology, the Delphi technique is gaining popularity in the field of management. The success of the Delphi technique lies in the selection of the right experts which may look easy on the surface but difficult when actually trying to reach out to such experts.

When to use the design?
Linstone and Turoff (2002), two of the earliest researchers with the Delphi technique, offered a number of common reasons why a researcher might select Delphi as the research design of choice. They say that the Delphi technique is generally selected as a design of choice when there is a lack of information or detail making precise analysis impossible, however the collective subjective judgments of experts might provide a close to accurate solution. It is also useful when the required experts are very diverse and have no history of communication. At times money and time make frequent group meeting impractical. Further it is felt that with experts, problems that may arise due to strong personalities and large differences of opinion may be avoided through anonymous communication.

Types of problems appropriate for this design?
The good thing about the Delphi technique is that almost any future focused problem is appropriate. For example, Jiang, Kleer, and Piller (2017) used the Delphi technique to study future economic and societal implications of 3D printing in 2030. The scale of their study included about 300 participants. Delphi studies has been done on education and cyber security (Davidson, 2014). Complex studies, having crossovers into many other areas of study such as healthcare (where it is easier to qualify and expert) are areas where the Delphi technique has found popularity. Strategic planning is another area that uses the Delphi technique such as the study by Roßmann et al. (2017) on how big data will affect supply chain management in the future.

Delphi Technique and NGT.
The Delphi Technique and Nominal Group Technique are both primary consensus focus research designs and are widely used in healthcare. (Fink et al., 1984). Both typically use multiple iterations of questioning to assist in reaching consensus (Hsu & Sandford, 2007), with no specific set number of rounds.

References
- Davidson, P. L., & Hasledalen, K. (2014). Cyber threats to online education: A Delphi study. Paper presented at the 2nd International Conference on Management, Leadership and Governance, Boston, MA.
- Fink, A., Kosecoff, J., Chassin, M., & Brook, R. H. (1984). Consensus methods: Characteristics and guidelines for use. American Journal of Public Health, 74(9), 979-983.
- Helmer, O. (1967). Analysis of the future: The Delphi method. Retrieved from http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/papers/2008/P3558.pdf
- Hsu, C.-C., & Sandford, B. A. (2007). The Delphi technique: Making sense of consensus. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 12(10), 1-8.
- Jiang, R., Kleer, R., & Piller, F. T. (2017). Predicting the future of additive manufacturing: A Delphi study on economic and societal implications of 3D printing for 2030. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 117(April 2017), 84-97. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2017.01.006
- Linstone, H. A., & Turoff, M. (Eds.). (2002). The Delphi method: Techniques and applications. Retrieved from http://is.njit.edu/pubs/delphibook/delphibook.pdf
Roßmann, B., Canzaniello, A., Gracht, H. v. d., & Hartmann, E. (2017). The future and social impact of big data analytics in supply chain management: Results from a Delphi study [in press]. Technological Forecasting & Social Change. doi:10.1016/j.techfore.2017.10.005

It was a difficult choice between three answers - Rahul Garg, Sai Kotari and Vishwanath Oleti. Sai Kotari's answer edges over the other two because of the comparison between the two techniques. However, the other 2 answers are also a must read.

 

Also review the answer provided by Mr Venugopal R, Benchmark Six Sigma's in-house expert.