Methodological problems associated with the Use of the Delphi technique

In this article some of the methodological problems associated with using the Delphi technique for the development of a Firesafety Evaluation (Points) Scheme are examined. These problems relate to: questionnaire design, the merits and demerits of Delphi groups versus panel groups, the definition of key terms (such as expert, consensus and stability), the reliability, validity and level of measurement achieved by Likert-type scaling techniques, and the differences in the decisionmaking processes of expert and nonexpert groups.

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