Table 1.
Characteristics of informal and formal consensus development methods (20).
| Consensus development method |
Mailed* questionnaires/ Survey |
Private decisions elicited prior to group discussion? |
Formal feedback of group choice |
Face- to-face contact |
Interaction structured |
Incorporates evidence |
Aggregation method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delphi | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | + | Explicit |
| NGT | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | + | Explicit |
| RAND | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | +++ | Explicit |
| Consensus dev. Conf. | No | No | No | Yes | No | + | Implicit |
*
postal survey, internet, fax