Book excerpt: TRIZ first emerged from the former Soviet Union in the 1990's. TRIZ is the Russian acronym for Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. TRIZ is a set of tools for directing creative thinking based upon the study of patents. Breakthrough thinking is not left to creative inspiration. Instead, new and innovative ideas that solve simple to highly complex technical problems or create new inventions can be systematically derived. TRIZICS is an organized process for the practical application of TRIZ, it incorporates TRIZ tools into a simple step-by-step framework that includes the logic of structured problem solving, leverages TRIZ tools for root cause analysis, and directs the user to select the appropriate TRIZ tool to use during the problem solving process.