Equipotentiality

{
  "id": "TRIZ-12",
  "title": "Equipotentiality",
  "intent": "Reduce unnecessary effort by aligning conditions so work does not have to fight against artificial differences.",
  "triz_principle": {
    "number": 12,
    "name": "Equipotentiality",
    "definition": "Change working conditions so that an object is neither raised nor lowered; eliminate unnecessary potential differences."
  },
  "problem_understanding": {
    "core_contradiction": "We want efficient flow, but the system forces work to constantly move uphill through friction, approvals, or transformations.",
    "why_this_hurts": "Energy is wasted not on value creation, but on overcoming artificial barriers created by mismatched standards, environments, or formats.",
    "typical_signals": [
      "constant data transformations between systems",
      "manual alignment of formats, rules, or environments",
      "rework caused by incompatible assumptions",
      "teams spending time 'adapting' instead of building"
    ]
  },
  "solution_logic": {
    "core_idea": "Align conditions so work can flow naturally without resistance.",
    "key_rule": "Remove artificial differences before adding automation or tooling.",
    "how_it_resolves_the_contradiction": "By equalizing conditions, effort drops and throughput increases without adding complexity."
  },
  "application_patterns": {
    "consulting": [
      "align definitions and terminology before process design",
      "harmonize decision criteria across forums",
      "use shared templates and vocabularies"
    ],
    "software_engineering": [
      "standardize data formats and schemas early",
      "align dev/test/prod environments",
      "use common error and logging models"
    ],
    "architecture": [
      "canonical data models at integration boundaries",
      "uniform API standards across services",
      "shared identity and authorization mechanisms"
    ],
    "enterprise_sap": [
      "harmonized master data definitions across systems",
      "aligned number ranges and key mappings",
      "common validation logic before replication"
    ]
  },
  "anti_patterns": [
    "automating over misalignment",
    "adding adapters everywhere instead of fixing root causes",
    "forcing alignment where diversity is required"
  ],
  "usage_guidance": {
    "use_when": [
      "most effort goes into translation and alignment",
      "errors are caused by mismatched assumptions",
      "work slows down at system or team boundaries"
    ],
    "do_not_use_when": [
      "differences are intentional and valuable",
      "alignment cost exceeds efficiency gains"
    ]
  },
  "diagnostic_questions": [
    "Where do we constantly translate or adapt?",
    "Which differences add no real value?",
    "What could be aligned once instead of fixed repeatedly?"
  ],
  "example": {
    "before": "Each system uses its own master data definitions, requiring constant mapping and correction.",
    "after": "A shared canonical model removes the need for repeated transformations."
  },
  "meta": {
    "schema": "dkharlanau.dataset.byte",
    "schema_version": "1.1",
    "dataset": "TRIZ-bytes",
    "source_project": "cv-ai",
    "source_path": "TRIZ-bytes/TRIZ-12.json",
    "generated_at_utc": "2026-02-03T14:33:32+00:00",
    "creator": {
      "name": "Dzmitryi Kharlanau",
      "role": "SAP Lead",
      "website": "https://dkharlanau.github.io",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "attribution": {
      "attribution_required": true,
      "preferred_citation": "Dzmitryi Kharlanau (SAP Lead). Dataset bytes: https://dkharlanau.github.io"
    },
    "license": {
      "name": "",
      "spdx": "",
      "url": ""
    },
    "links": {
      "website": "https://dkharlanau.github.io",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "contact": {
      "preferred": "linkedin",
      "linkedin": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/dkharlanau"
    },
    "canonical_url": "https://dkharlanau.github.io/datasets/TRIZ-bytes/TRIZ-12.json",
    "created_at_utc": "2026-02-03T14:33:32+00:00",
    "updated_at_utc": "2026-02-03T15:29:02+00:00",
    "provenance": {
      "source_type": "chat_export_extraction",
      "note": "Extracted and curated by Dzmitryi Kharlanau; enriched for attribution and crawler indexing."
    },
    "entity_type": "triz_byte",
    "entity_subtype": "",
    "summary": "Reduce unnecessary effort by aligning conditions so work does not have to fight against artificial differences."
  }
}