The Delphi Technique In Project Management: Harnessing Group Wisdom

If you’ve ever wished for a way to gather expert opinions without the noise of loud personalities or dominant voices swaying the room, using the Delphi technique in project management might just be your new favorite.

In this article, we’re going deep into how the Delphi technique can elevate your project management game—from navigating complex issues to forecasting future events. You'll get practical examples, real-world use cases, and even a step-by-step breakdown of the process. By the end, you'll understand how to apply this technique to get clearer decisions and stronger consensus among your stakeholders without the chaos of unstructured brainstorming.

What Is The Delphi Technique?

At its core, the Delphi technique is a structured, interactive method used to gather insights from a panel of experts through multiple rounds of questionnaires. It’s especially useful when you're trying to reach a consensus on difficult or complex issues.

Originally developed by the RAND Corporation in the 1950s, the Delphi method was created as a way to predict the impact of technology on warfare. Since then, it’s been adopted across industries—including healthcare, education, and of course, project management.

Think of it like Wikipedia in action: a group of experts collaboratively shaping the answer over time. However, instead of open edits, you’ve got structured feedback loops, anonymity, and a facilitator guiding the process. It’s where collective wisdom meets well-orchestrated planning.

Is the project managing you?

Sign up to get weekly insights, tips, and other helpful content from digital project management experts.

Your email*

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Consent

Yes, I want to sign up to receive regular emails filled with tips, expert insights, and more to build my PM practice.

By submitting you agree to receive occasional emails and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time. Protected by reCAPTCHA; Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Email

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Key Characteristics Of The Delphi Technique

The strength of the Delphi technique lies in its structure. Here’s what sets it apart:

• Anonymity of Participants: Participants don’t know who else is in the group. This reduces the influence of dominant personalities and helps prevent groupthink. A major benefit for PMs trying to get honest, uninfluenced feedback.
• Structured Information Flow: Information is collected and distributed systematically through rounds of questionnaires, not chaotic meetings or Slack threads.
• Regular Feedback and Iteration: Responses from each round are aggregated and summarized. Participants then review and refine their answers in subsequent rounds, fostering convergence toward a shared outcome.
• Neutrality of the Facilitator: The facilitator manages the process—designing the questions, summarizing responses, and guiding the iterative process until the group reaches a consensus. Their neutrality is key to avoiding biases in the outcomes.

The Delphi Process: Step-by-Step

Here’s how the Delphi process plays out in real-world projects:

1. Problem Identification and Definition: You start by clearly defining the problem or question you're trying to answer. Example: "What are the top risks to this year’s product launch?"
2. Selection of a Facilitator: Choose a neutral facilitator (this might be you!) to manage the process. This person will handle data collection, anonymize responses, and ensure smooth communication.
3. Identification and Engagement of Experts: Build your expert panel. These could be internal team members, external subject matter experts, or a mix of both. They should bring diverse viewpoints and deep expertise.
4. Round One - Initial Questionnaire Distribution: The first round is about casting a wide net. Send out open-ended questionnaires to gather a broad range of expert opinions.
5. Aggregation and Summarization of Responses: The facilitator compiles a summary report, highlighting common themes, divergent ideas, and points of interest.
6. Subsequent Rounds - Feedback and Refinement: In the second round, and any additional iterative rounds, experts review the group response and revise their input. The idea is to refine and align until a consensus is reached.
7. Achieving Consensus and Finalizing Results: When responses stabilize (meaning there’s little change between rounds), you finalize the results. These insights are often used to inform decision-making, create strategies, or improve forecasts.

Applications of the Delphi Technique in Project Management

The Delphi technique is incredibly flexible. Here’s how you can apply it in digital project management:

• Scope Management: Use it to reach alignment with stakeholders on what’s in (and out of) scope. This is helpful when managing different expectations and avoiding scope creep.
• Risk Assessment: One of the most powerful uses of the Delphi method. Engage your expert panel to identify and prioritize risks early. It strengthens your risk management plan with richer, diverse insights.
• Decision-Making: For tough calls like selecting a vendor, setting project priorities, or choosing between conflicting features, the Delphi method helps guide your team to thoughtful, consensus-based decisions.

Benefits of Using the Delphi Technique

Using the Delphi technique in digital projects brings several key advantages. Here are the four most impactful to the successful outcome of your projects:

• Mitigation of Groupthink: Groupthink is a phenomenon in which groups of people reach consensus without critical reasoning. When we look to make group decisions, it is common to have rank or status influence certain people. That is not the case here as the anonymity from the Delphi technique encourages honesty. Also, without peer pressure, you're more likely to get real, uncensored feedback. This might be one of the greatest advantages of the Delphi technique.
• Encouragement of Diverse Perspectives: By sourcing input from a group of experts across disciplines or departments, you surface fresh ideas that wouldn’t emerge in traditional brainstorming. As you might have already guessed, the diversity of ideas is directly related to your sourcing of experts. Make sure you set time aside to carefully select the people who will participate.
• Structured and Systematic Consensus Building: The methodology relies on multiple feedback cycles and clear summaries. That means better-informed decision-making. Especially when the stakes are high. Keep in mind that because of this structured approach, skipping through steps when you have a tight schedule will impact the quality of the outcome. Make sure you have time in your project to execute this properly.
• Applicability in Remote or Distributed Teams: Since the process is asynchronous and largely text-based, it fits perfectly with stakeholder management in remote teams. You’re not limited by time zones or schedules as there is a period for collecting responses and a different one for summarizing.

Challenges and Considerations of the Delphi Technique

If you have decided that the Delphi Technique is for you, consider the hurdles before you jump in:

• Time-Consuming Nature of Multiple Rounds: The Delphi study isn’t a quick fix. You’re committing to several rounds of questionnaires, each requiring time to craft, distribute, and summarize. If you don't plan for it properly, you risk spending too much time on this activity and, ultimately, delaying your project.
• Dependence on the Selection of Appropriate Experts: As mentioned before, the quality of your results hinges on having the right panelists. Choose poorly, and you risk weak or irrelevant insights.
• Potential for Facilitator Bias: The facilitator plays a critical role. If their summary report introduces interpretation or leading language, it can skew results. Neutrality is non-negotiable and the reason why some companies opt for facilitators who are not directly related to the project or impacted by its outcome.

Asynchronous Delphi Technique Using Project Management Tools

Thanks to modern project management software, running a Delphi technique asynchronously has never been easier. These tools can help you manage the process end-to-end and I thought I’d add some here so you can get started:

1. 1. monday.com — Best for workflow automation
2. 2. Productive — Best for agency projects and budgeting
3. 3. Wrike — Best for large projects and scaling
4. 4. ClickUp — Best for replacing multiple separate tools
5. 5. Celoxis — Best for simplified planning and workflows
6. 6. Hive — Best for collaborative project management
7. 7. Hub Planner — Best for resource scheduling
8. 8. Zoho Projects — Best for integration with Zoho Suite
9. 9. Bonsai Agency Software — Best for end-to-end agency projects
10. 10. Quickbase — Best for process automation

Here’s an example of how you could use these tools:

You’re the PM for a global website redesign. You need feedback on design priorities from UX leads, content strategists, and SEO pros. Instead of a Zoom call where one person dominates, you use a Trello board with anonymous cards for each round of questions. Each expert panel member adds their thoughts, votes on priorities, and refines answers across subsequent rounds. The facilitator manages the flow and pulls it all together into a final decision doc.

Not only does this save meeting time, but it also ensures richer input, smoother convergence, and decisions backed by real expertise.

Join For More Project Management Insights

Want to connect with other digital project managers to share resources and best practices? Join our membership community and get access to 100+ templates, samples, and examples and connect with 100s of other digital project managers in Slack.