Book Review: Engineering of Creativity: Introduction to TRIZ Methodology
of Inventive Problem Solving
Ellen Domb
Title: Engineering of Creativity: Introduction to TRIZ
Methodology of Inventive Problem Solving
Author: Semyon D. Savransky, TRIZ_SDS@hotmail.com
Publisher: CRC Press LLC
ISBN: 0-8493-2255-3 Cost: $59.95 Pages: 394 Style: Hardback
Available from: Bookstores, on-line resources (Amazon and Barnes and
Noble both have it), from the publisher, http://www.crcpress.com, and in a
special $150 edition with additional material from Dr. Savransky’s web site,
http://www.trizexperts.net.
Semyon Savransky’s new book Engineering of Creativity is a very
welcome addition to the literature of TRIZ in English. It is a comprehensive
book, beginning with a review of how people solve problems, why early methods
have been unsatisfactory, what TRIZ is, how TRIZ works, how to use the TRIZ
collections of data (problem solving principles, standard solutions, patterns of
evolution) and how to bring all this information together and organize it to
solve problems. It is also a scholarly book, with references to sources ranging
from the ancient Greek Demokrit to Norbert Weiner to Charles Darwin. The
extensive references to works in Russian are frustrating now, but in the next
few years when translation engines become available, they will be of great value
to those who want to read the TRIZ foundation literature.
Engineering of Creativity can be used several ways. It can be read
straight through like a textbook, working out answers to each of the problems as
the reader encounters them. Or, individual sections can be read separately as
references for specific subjects. The examples used to illustrate each method
are drawn from a variety of technical disciplines, so it is possible to read
each section independently of the others. Because of the variety of examples,
each reader should be able to find ones that relate to his own knowledge and
help him understand the concepts.
People who have struggled with understanding TRIZ from the limited resources
available in English will be grateful for the work Savransky has put into
clarifying the historical context of each of the tools of TRIZ, and showing how
the tools developed. His comprehensive explanations of the theory behind each
method as well as the practical “how to” descriptions of each method fill a
great gap in the existing English literature. Those in a hurry to just learn the
“how to” can skip these sections, and return to them later!
Savransky’s goal of creating a standard vocabulary for TRIZ is the one area
where the book falls short. Introducing the term “technique” and defining it
as the collective noun for both technical systems and technological processes,
and then talking about the environment of a technique, brings confusion, not
clarity to an already complex situation. The use of abbreviations for frequently
used terms (CSP is “correct statement of problem”) causes some difficulty
for the reader, if there is a time delay between first encountering a term, and
seeing it again in later chapters. With these exceptions, the book uses standard
American English engineering terminology, and is quite easy to read.
Fortunately, the missing articles and strained sentence structure characteristic
of some of the Russian translations of TRIZ are limited to the title and to a
few of the notes.
Dr. Savransky has done an excellent job of organizing the history,
heuristics, theory, and methods of TRIZ in ways that will give his readers new
insights. I look forward to getting readers’ opinions of Engineering of
Creativity.
See Also:
A Personal View on Savranskys Book
By: Kalevi Rantanen
