TRIZ For Dummies

Chapter 12

Getting to Grips with Your Problems with Function Analysis

In This Chapter

Turning messy situations into a well-defined problem list

Understanding problems and the best routes forward for solving them

Describing and communicating issues so anyone can understand them

One of the joys of TRIZ is that it takes complex problems and breaks them down into a series of simple and easy-to-understand relationships. Function Analysis maps these messy, complex issues in a diagram that can be understood at a glance, and difficult problem solving is broken into small, easy-to-digest chunks.

This chapter looks at how you can use Function Analysis to your best advantage.

Making Complex Problems Simple

The way Function Analysis works is to take complicated situations and break them down into a series of binary relationships. You build a diagram or map of these interactions, which describes how your system works taken as a whole at one moment in time – this enables you to tackle the big, messy system one simple interaction at a time.

Function Analysis gives you focus: you concentrate on the essential problems without being distracted by irrelevant detail or psychological inertia. Function ...