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

1. State the Ideal Final Result: the function delivered without the system existing. Ask what would make the system unnecessary while the function still happens.
2. 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.
3. Map to adjacent fields using the field taxonomy.
4. Search for solved analogues in those fields.
5. 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/NOTICE for 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".