Crisis Of Fragmentation

Analysis: separation of a whole into its component parts

The CrisisOfFragmentation occurs when we break apart a complex problem and don't know how to put it together again!

Synthesis: the combining of often diverse conceptions into a coherent whole is the solution to this crisis.

Why would one want to break apart a complex problem? Could it be that the problem is not being solved by the whole because something is missing in the component parts? It would seem to me that if one comes up with what is missing and adds that as the missing component, the combination or "putting it together again" of the whole is not the nightmare it would be if assembly is attempted without it. This is what causes many sleepless nights, that is, the "missing" component. The discovery of that component is made easier with ProcessImprovementTools applied with ProcessImprovementSkills.

What do you mean by "the problem is not being solved by the whole because something is missing in the component parts"? The presence of component parts in your description indicates that you've already applied separation heuristics. How would anyone know what "the missing component" would be unless they could observe its interaction with other components? Are you implying that all difficult problems are of the form where if you add a component they are easy? Are you discussing pure problem space here, or an admixture of problem and solution? Finally, what does process improvement have to do with any of this?

(don't know too much about it, but several philosophical & psychological theories say that breaking up large/complex issues to small ones is the way we always solve problems / think. wondering whether this crisis described here is also related to what the philosophers call reductio ad absurdum or something like that? should take the time at some point to check the references and reform this note.)

[Reductio ad absurdum means showing one's assumptions are not all correct by deducing something which is absurd or impossible.]

Contrast GreedyReductionism?, CarvingTheProblemAtIsJoints? [CookDing]