Hybrid Delphi: A methodology to facilitate contribution from experts in professional contexts

Abstract

This work presents a new methodology based on three well-known qualitative techniques (Focus Group, Nominal Group Technique and Delphi method), with a view to harmonising their potentialities and reducing their limitations, through application in real contexts with experts who are professionals in their respective activities.

The main contribution of this methodology is its joint consideration of the needs of the investigators and also of experts who act in professional contexts, in order to improve the effectiveness of preceding techniques in achieving the scientific and social objectives of the study.

We have tested this methodological approach in three real cases, with experts holding different responsibilities in different companies and public organisations, and the results secured are highly satisfactory, due to both the quantity and quality of the proposals obtained, and the satisfaction exhibited by the experts taking part, with regard to the research methodology.

Introduction

What is the best way of extracting and processing the information possessed by a set of professionals concerning a problem or phenomenon? Since Helmer and Rescher [1], [2] laid the foundations for the scientific use of expert opinion in the areas of decision and prediction, different techniques have been developed over the years aimed at responding to the initial question, in different contexts and with different objectives. All these techniques have, in general, sought to contribute improvements in one or some of the fields of action originally delimited by Helmer [3]: 1- improvement in the selection of the most suitable information sources for each concrete case (relying on the appropriate experts), 2- assisting in the effective development of experts' activities, facilitating transmission of the information required, and 3- development of methodologies of action that make the processing of that information possible, achieving outcomes of greater quality.

This methodological development is still of relevance, because knowledge advances and because needs change with time. In this regard, one sphere of great scientific and social interest is the obtaining of ranked lists of problems, practices, solutions… regarding a specific phenomenon using the tacit knowledge of professional experts who are undergoing problems, carrying out practices or applying solutions in their respective contexts of action. By professionals we refer to experts who voluntarily collaborate in a forecasting or group decision activity, freely contributing their knowledge, which is normally a product of their usual working activity. From this category we exclude, therefore, students, scholarship holders and other “captive experts”. For this purpose different group techniques may be employed, some of which already have a broad academic history of application. However, those of us who apply them feel that there is much more knowledge that we have been unable to access. A good deal of the possible inefficiency stems from the fact that it is difficult to find an active route to the professionals who possess the knowledge we are eager for and hard to get them to make that knowledge explicit: it is not easy to locate them, they tend to have little time at their disposal, it is complicated to bring them together in face-to-face sessions, they have needs and interests different from those of researchers, they tend to be hard to pin down in their answers, they may have fears, personal characteristics and assumed roles that limit their responses, and so forth. Consequently, the right methodologies need to be developed for these kinds of experts and research objects.

With this view in mind, we make a methodology proposal in this work that is a hybrid of three techniques that are widely acknowledged and have a long track record: directed face-to-face discussion groups or Focus Groups, the Delphi Method and the Nominal Group Technique. Each of the three has its own characteristics that are highly suitable for obtaining the required results from this kind of expert, but they also have their disadvantages. A careful combination of these characteristics can reduce their limitations whilst retaining what they contribute. In the article we set out the characteristics and limitations of the Focus Group, the Delphi and the NGT, the purpose, configuration and development of the proposed hybrid methodology, which we have called Hybrid Delphi, and the practical application of this new methodology in three different professional contexts.