The Pair-Choice technique is a prioritization technique that can be used in single person or group settings.  However, it is most often used as a consensus building technique when multiple stakeholders are involved.  The pair-choice technique is applied when the audience is having difficulty rank ordering the importance of items.  These items might be requirements, but they can also be any number of other items that require prioritization.

The Pair-Choice technique asks the audience to compare each item against every other item (pairing) and as a group choose which one is of higher priority (choice).

The sample table below shows the pair-choice technique applied to 9 items.

As you can see when item 3 was paired with item 7, it was determined that item 7 was of higher priority.

After the exercise is complete, the number of times an item “won the choice” is tallied up as seen below.

A clear ranking begins to emerge.  When ties are found in the tallied results, the table can be used to see which item ranked higher.  In the case of item 3 and 5, 3 won the pair-choice so it would be ranked higher than 5.