The Delphi technique for group decision making involves making
forecasts, or deciding on forecasts, normally in a business area (Brown, 1968). It’s a collaborative and iterative technique
involving an expert panel. The panel
members basically provide their input into a problem or forecasting area, then
using the responses of their fellow panel members, adjust their responses in
subsequent rounds of discussion. These
collaborative rounds are halted when group consensus is reached or after some
predetermined criteria is met. The intent
is to come to a group consensus on the best, most correct answer to whatever
question is presented to the panel. It
seems to be really focused on making forecasts, rather than being a technique
for general decision making.
Another group decision making methodology is TOPSIS
(technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) (Hwang and
Yoon, 1981). This process arrives at
decisions by having group members assign a score to various factors. The factors or problem area criteria are
weighted. The object is to arrive at an
optimal solution that is mathematically proven to be the closest to
optimal. Looking at the formulas
involved, it’s pretty quantitative in nature.
It allows both positive and negative factors to be assessed in the
problem area.
The similarities between these two methods are few. Actually, the only similarity I can discern
is that they’re structured methodologies aimed at deriving optimal group
solutions. The differences are
many. One uses panel of experts, the
other members of the group that have a stake in the decision. Delphi allows collaboration and iteration,
while TOPSIS is focused on weighted criteria and mathematical “proof” of the
goodness of the decision.
Brown, B. B. (1968). Delphi
process: a methodology used for the elicitation of opinions of experts (No.
RAND-P-3925). RAND Corp Santa Monica CA.
Hwang, C. L., & Yoon, K.
(1981). Multiple Attribute Decision Making Methods and Applications, Springer. Berlin
Heidelberg.
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