As originally developed by Dalkey and Helmer, the Delphi technique was designed for the technological forecasting of future events. Until today, however, a review of the literature indicates that it is considered a reliable qualitative research method with potential for use in problem solving, decision making, and group consensus reaching in a wide variety of areas. [1]
Delphi has been applied in a
large number of domains including academia, administration, agriculture,
automotive, banking, criminal justice, economics, education, environmental
studies, finance, health care, housing, insurance, management, real estate,
sales, strategic planning, tourism, training, transportation, and utilities. Some
problem areas addressed using Delphi include project evaluation, sales
forecasting, energy generation, programmer productivity, science and technology
planning, urban analysis, bank automation, policy and trend analysis, planning
regional health services, mental health care, impact of legislation and tax
reforms on business and insurance companies, risk management, investment
analysis, information usefulness in merger acquisition, policy formulation,
insurance trend analysis, estimating the quality of teacher education, market
research, financial planning, housing, office transportation, assessing police
corruption, and curriculum development. [2]
Over time Delphi has continued to
be a popular subject for researchers and practitioners. The number of Delphi
publications peaked and continue to show a steady and sustained interest and
enthusiasm in the planning and forecasting community over the last decades. [2]
Practitioners are often willing,
and sometimes even eager, to modify Delphi to meet their decision-making and
forecasting needs. In some cases, the modifications to Delphi are meaningful
and contribute to a better understanding of the technique. [2]
Welphi does not propose a
modification to the Delphi technique. Rather it adapts its classical “paper” development,
e.g. resorting to printed questionnaires, to a web-based environment allowing for
the development of time and cost effective Delphi processes. Welphi keeps all
of Delphi key characteristics (anonymity, iteration, controlled feedback and statistical
aggregation) and versatility while automating the processes and offering
user-friendly dashboards, for both the administrator and the shareholders in
the process, adapting the Delphi technique to the technological Era we are developing
our processes in.
Visit www.welphi.com to find out more about how Welphi can positively impact and change the your way of developing Delphi processes.
Sources:
[1] Murry, Jr.J.W. and Hammons,
J.O. Delphi: A Versatile Methodology for
Conducting Qualitative Research (1995). In: The Review for Higher
Education, Vol. 18, nº4, pp. 423-436.
[2] Gupta, U.G and Clarke, R.E.
Theory and applications of the Delphi technique: A Bibliography (1975-1994)
(1996). In: Technological Forecast and Social Change, Vol. 53, Issue 2, pp.
185-211.
