Decision Rules: Majority Vote

Majority Vote IconThe majority vote decision rule means that in order for a decision to pass, more than half of the team members in the group must agree to the decision. When the team feels the speed in which the decision needs to be made is more important than the quality, then using a majority can be a good compromise between a time-consuming unanimous agreement and no discussion at all.

When to use the Majority Vote Decision Rule?

The original idea behind using majority vote when stakes are high, is that the competition of ideas creates pressure and therefore people’s reasoning improves over the course of the debate. However, reality shows us that people don’t always vote based on the logical merits of the arguments presented. To avoid this, it is best for teams to only use the majority vote rule when a quick low stake decision needs to be made, like when deciding on where to eat lunch.

Example Techniques

Show of hands, Roman voting, Anonymous voting, Polls

What did you think about this content?

Included In

Learning Series
Scrum Teams need to make decisions all the time. Helping teams reach a decision effectively, and gaining necessary buy-in from all team members can be challenging, especially when team members are unclear on who has the final say in making it. Understanding the decision rule, how a decision is made and whose input is required, is necessary because ambiguity in the decision process causes confusion and frustration.