athola TRIZ Cross-Domain Analysis
When To Use
- Stuck on a problem and need perspectives from other domains
- Exploring cross-domain analogies for inventive solutions
When NOT To Use
- Standard code search or literature review (use other tome channels)
- Problems with obvious, well-known solutions
Apply Altshuller's Theory of Inventive Problem Solving to find solutions from adjacent fields.
Depth Levels
| Depth | Fields | Analysis |
|---|---|---|
| light | 1 | Ideality and contradiction |
| medium | 2 | Ideality, contradiction, field mapping |
| deep | 3 | Adds principle suggestions and separation |
| maximum | 5 | Adds distant fields and optional matrix lookup |
Workflow
- State the Ideal Final Result: the function delivered without the system existing. Ask what would make the system unnecessary while the function still happens.
- Formulate the technical contradiction: improving X worsens Y. For a physical contradiction (one parameter pulled toward two opposite values), apply separation in time, space, condition, or system/scale instead of compromise.
- Map to adjacent fields using the field taxonomy.
- Search for solved analogues in those fields.
- Build bridge mappings with rationale and a confidence score.
Field Mapping Strategy
- Software architecture: civil engineering, biology
- Data structures: logistics, materials science
- Algorithms: operations research, genetics
- Security: military strategy, immunology
- Financial: game theory, ecology
Related
TRIZ is the analogical method in the broader ideation catalog.
For diverse, category-spanning ideation with rotation, see
Skill(tome:ideate).
Limitations
- The built-in contradiction catalog maps common software trade-offs to principles. It is a convenience mapping rather than part of the classical TRIZ Body of Knowledge, which is scoped to technological systems.
- The optional canonical matrix is a sparse subset of Altshuller's 39x39 engineering-parameter table. It has been frozen since 1985 and uses engineering, not software, parameters. Treat it as a cross-check, not the primary source.
- An empty matrix cell does not mean "no solution". By the empty-box convention, any of the 40 principles may apply.
- The strongest, most portable parts of TRIZ are the 40 principles as a divergence checklist and Ideality as a framing question. ARIZ, Substance-Field analysis, the 76 standard solutions, the Laws of Technical Systems Evolution (S-curves), and Function-Oriented Search (FOS) are out of scope here.
Sources
- TRIZ Body of Knowledge (MATRIZ) and the classical contradiction matrix (matriz.org).
- AutoTRIZ (arXiv 2403.13002, 2024): LLM-driven TRIZ ideation.
- TRIZ Agents (arXiv 2506.18783, 2025): multi-agent LLM orchestration across TRIZ steps; companion to AutoTRIZ.
- The vendored canonical 39x39 matrix subset comes from
NickScherbakov/Heinrich-The-Inventing-Machine (Apache-2.0);
see
src/tome/channels/triz_data/NOTICEfor attribution and the exact vendored scope.
Exit Criteria
- An Ideal Final Result statement is produced before the search begins.
- A technical contradiction is stated as "improving X worsens Y" (or a physical contradiction is named with a separation axis).
- At least one cross-domain bridge with a confidence score is returned per active adjacent field, or the field is explicitly reported as yielding nothing.
- When the canonical matrix is consulted, an empty cell is reported as "any of the 40 may apply", not as "no solution".