Supporting facilitation in group support systems: Techniques for analyzing consensus relevant data

In this paper, we present a set of techniques and an approach to support the facilitator in building consensus during group decision making in computer supported group work. The approach utilizes data about each participant's expressed preferences (scores and ranks) for a set of decision alternatives under consideration. The data are analyzed to provide the facilitator with information about the level of group consensus, coalescing of subgroups, and areas of strong disagreement. An illustration from a real-world case situation demonstrates the approach.