The Delphi method & The Welphi

The Delphi method is a tool for structuring an effective group communication process, allowing a group of individuals, as a whole, to deal with a complex problem and it is based on the assumption that group opinion is more valid and reliable that individual opinion. Delphi was developed at the RAND Corporation in the 1950s to forecast the impact of technology on warfare and it roughly consists in the employment of a series of intensive questionnaires interspersed with a controlled opinion feedback. There are four key features that characterize a Delphi process, as follows:

1 | Anonymity of the individual responses;

2 | Iteration that allows participants to revise their perspectives and values;

3 | Controlled feedback;

4 | Statistical aggregation.

By not making mandatory the physical presence of the members of the group, Delphi avoids social pressure (as it is an anonymous process) and it allows for a more efficient use of resources, such as time and money. This is valid for all group sizes, but is especially relevant considering large groups and/or geographically dispersed participants.


Since its development, and given its underlying flexibility, the Delphi method has undergone different modifications and today there are several types of Delphi methods. This ability to adapt to different real-world problems makes it possible to find examples of Delphi processes on: risk management, investment analysis, planning health services, policy and trend analysis and policy formulation. The Delphi method has been used for meeting several challenges, including: establishing objectives, planning for budget allocations, collecting current and historical data, exploring perceptions associated with potential policy options, exploring personal motivations and values and forecasting by exploring what is likely to happen, what may change, and what effects can be anticipated. Thus, Delphi has been applied in a large number of domains including business, economics, finance, health care, sales and strategic planning.


The Welphi is an online survey platform implementing the Delphi method. The platform allows for the creation of questionnaires aiming at the acquisition of the opinion of several participants engaging in the process, which may or may not be geographically disperse and/or with a busy agenda, in an easy and affordable way due to its web-based nature. Through a system of questionnaire rounds, it is possible, in an anonymous way, to confront each participant with the opinions of his peers, engaging participants in a non-face-to-face format and promoting consensus among the group on issues that lack the support of quantitative data. Thus, the Welphi is positioned between a face-to-face meeting – where the confrontation of ideas is possible but the physical presence of all participants is required– and a simple online questionnaire – where the opinion of participants is requested but not shared with others and no opportunity is given to each participant to revise his option in light of the opinion of his peers. 

Therefore, the Welphi permits to confront ideas in an asynchronous, online, participatory and iterative way. Moreover, by permitting to anonymously share the participants’ comments, each participant can change his initial position, thus promoting group consensus. The Welphi was developed to facilitate the process of:

 | Creating questionnaires;

 | Creating rounds;

 | Introducing the object of study (indicators, criteria, objectives, policies, etc.);

 | Creating response scales;

 | Introducing and inviting participants;

 | Producing questionnaire statistics;

 | Creating rules for approval and rejection;

 | Sharing rounds results with participants;

 | Producing statistical graphs for each round and for the whole process.

Stay tuned for further information on the features of Welphi.

In the meantime, test the welphi at https://app.welphi.com