We intend to feature at least 100 experts on our panel. They will present a broad mix of subject expertise reflecting the four Tasks described in the Tender Specifications. We will also try and recruit a broad mix of very senior, senior and experienced experts in the field of SDN and NFV.

The main screening criterion for recruiting the expert panel is their individual knowledge about and their involvement in the subject area to be studied. It should noted, that, there is no specific recommendation about which number of experts constitutes a sufficient sample size.

We follwed this approach, since Delphi-Studies, although producing quantifiable insights, are (epistemologically speaking) essentially a qualitative method to explore and forecast technological developments. Thus, the sample selection process for the expert participants also follows the fundamental rules of sampling for qualitative research approaches. Instead of statistical representativeness, qualitative samples aim at subject representativeness.