Forced Ranking

What It Is Used For

• To use a group’s expertise to select from among options.

When to Use It

• With a team and when there are limited data to help select an option or a solution to a problem.
• This technique forces the team to directly compare options relative to each.

Important Notes

• Like the Nominal Group Technique, this technique is only as good as the skills and knowledge of the team that it using it.
• Forced Ranking should not be used as a substitute for collecting data (especially during root cause analysis).