CERTIFICATION LEVEL 4 REQUIREMENTS AND REGULATIONS

Certification -> Certification Regulations Level 4

Last Updated: 08 November 2024 by TRIZ Masters Dr. S.Litvin, Chairman of MATRIZ Official TMCC and Dr. O.Abramov, Academic Secretary of MATRIZ Official TMCC

Accepted: 08 November, 2024 by the Board of MATRIZ Official
Approved: 08 November by the President of MATRIZ Official  

1. General provisions

1.1. TRIZ Level 4 Specialist Certificate, issued by the International TRIZ Official Association (MATRIZ Official), confirms that the holder is a high level TRIZ specialist, who possesses profound knowledge of TRIZ and advanced skills in using TRIZ tools in compliance with MATRIZ Official requirements.

1.2. The main goals of introducing the TRIZ Level 4 Specialist Certification are:

    • Official recognition of high qualification of certified TRIZ specialists and confirmation that as of the date of certification TRIZ Level 4 Specialists have acquired profound theoretical knowledge of TRIZ and possess required skills for practical use of TRIZ tools in compliance with MATRIZ Official requirements,
    • Intensification of research activities in TRIZ and public recognition of the personal contribution of researchers to the development of TRIZ and to the practical application of TRIZ,
    • Intensification of practical application of TRIZ and public recognition of personal contribution of TRIZ practitioners and TRIZ trainers.

1.3. TRIZ Level 4 certificate is awarded for demonstrated capability to apply various TRIZ tools within one of the following three directions:

  • TRIZ-related research and development (for TRIZ developers / researchers),
  • Solving tough practical problems (for TRIZ practitioners), or
  • Effective TRIZ education (for TRIZ trainers / teachers).

1.4. TRIZ Level 4 certificate is awarded based on a defended qualification work (thesis).

1.5. Certified TRIZ Level 4 Specialists have the following equal rights, regardless of the date the diploma was issued and the ground of the new Level 4 Specialist:

  • To be elected as members of:
    • MATRIZ Official Board,
    • Committee on TRIZ Level 4 Specialists Certification,
    • Other MATRIZ Official governing bodies, which require appropriate qualification.
  • To individually conduct certification of TRIZ specialists (of up to Level 2) after obtaining accreditation from MATRIZ Official Certification Committee.

1.6. The present Regulations and any amendments to them must be accepted by the Board of МАTRIZ Official and approved by the President of МАTRIZ Official. Amendments made to these Regulations shall not have retroactive effect and, therefore, cannot be applied to the decisions made before the date of these amendments.

2. Requirements to Level 4 candidates and Qualification Work

2.1. Every candidate must be already certified on Level 3 by MATRIZ Official or MATRIZ.

At least 1 year must pass from the moment of the Level 3 certificate issuance to the application for Level 4.

If a candidate is certified to Level 3 by another TRIZ organization, he/she must submit his/her Level 3 work based on which he/she was certified, and the MATRIZ Official's Level 4 Certification Committee shall decide whether to accept this Level 3 certificate.

2.2. The candidate for L4 Certification must have:

  • TRIZ practitioners - experience of practical inventive activity, which can be confirmed by not less than 3 patents or published patent applications for inventions, implementation of obtained solutions, published case studies and so forth;
  • TRIZ developers / researchers - not fewer than three published works on TRIZ (including abstracts of papers presented at conferences);
  • TRIZ trainers / teachers - experience of conducting training on TRIZ, supported by a list of conducted seminars, programs of such seminars with convincing proof of their effectiveness[1], plus case studies[2] and tests for attendees.

[1] A proof of effectiveness could be a formal testimonial letter from the company whose employees the candidate has trained. Such a letter should clearly state that the trained people have become more efficient in their work and more useful to the company than before the training, for example, they have generated more patent applications, etc.

[2] Case studies are examples and tasks that the candidate uses in their training seminars. It is important that these examples are original and not borrowed from other people's materials.

2.3. To pass level 4 certification, candidates should prepare a thesis (in English) and defend it at Level 4 Certification Council (CC4) session.

3. Requirements for Level 4 thesis

3.1. To pass Level 4 TRIZ Specialist Certification, the candidate must prepare and defend a qualification work (thesis) at an open session of the Certification Committee 4 (CC4) - either in person or via teleconference.

3.2. The qualification work should be developed and defended in English, which is the official MATRIZ Official language. If a candidate lacks knowledge of English, he/she must arrange for an interpreter. Certification can be conducted in the native language of the candidate provided CC4 members are proficient in that language and agree to conduct qualification work defense in that language.

3.3. Level 4 thesis should be written by the applicant alone. It should contain new useful results and assertions set forth by the author for public defense. It should be characterized by intrinsic unity and should be a manifestation of the personal contribution of the author.

3.4. If the candidate used generative AI to develop his/her thesis, it must be clearly indicated which parts of the thesis were developed using generative AI.

3.5. The thesis should be prepared under the supervision of a scientific advisor who is at least a Level 4 TRIZ Specialist. The advisor prepares and submits his/her official review of the thesis to CC4 (see next section for details).

3.6. The thesis should demonstrate that the candidate is fluent in application of the following major TRIZ tools:

    • Function Analysis
    • Cause-Effect Chains Analysis
    • Contradictions formulation and Principles of their resolving
    • ARIZ (parts 1-5)
    • Function-Oriented Search
    • Trends of Engineering Systems Evolution

3.7. The volume of the thesis should be within 20 – 50 pages. The volume of the thesis abstract should not exceed 5 pages. Both the abstract and the thesis are submitted in electronic form.

The Recommended structure and content of the thesis abstract is as follows:

  • Objectives and tasks of the work
  • Main provisions to be discussed at the thesis defense
  • Results achieved and originality of these results (personal contribution of the candidate)
  • TRIZ tools used to achieve the results
  • Publications
  • Structure and volume of the work.

The recommended structure and content of the thesis is given below:

  • Introduction
  • Objectives of the work
  • Detailed statement of the problem
  • Selection of TRIZ methods of solving the problem stated
  • Results of the work performed
  • Personal contribution of the applicant
  • List of published works on the thesis topic (for TRIZ practitioners - list of their patents and patent applications and/or published case studies).

4. Level 4 certification procedure

4.1. The candidate must send an application in English to the Chairman of MATRIZ Official TMCC (copy to the Academic Secretary of the TMCC).

4.2. The application should contain:

  • Letter to the Chairman of MATRIZ Official TMCC requesting consideration of the application
  • Curriculum Vitae of the applicant with his contact information and a fresh photo
  • Level 3 TRIZ Specialist certificate number
  • Proof that the candidate has enough scientific or practical publications (see paragraph 2.2 of this document)
  • Title and short (but no less than 1000 symbols) abstract of the thesis
  • The thesis itself
  • The name and contact information of candidate’s scientific advisor (at least TRIZ Level 4 Specialist certified by MATRIZ or MATRIZ Official). If a scientific advisor is certified by another TRIZ organization, the MATRIZ Official TMCC will decide on a case-by-case basis whether to approve that person as a scientific advisor.
  • An official review of the advisor, which clearly states that the advisor has read the thesis and found it good enough to certify the candidate for TRIZ Level 4 Specialist.

The recommended structure and content of the advisor’s review is given below:

    • Relevance of the candidate’s work
    • Main results achieved by the candidate
    • Originality of the work (author’s contribution to the results obtained)
    • Main TRIZ tools that the candidate used to achieve the results
    • Disadvantages of the work (if any)
    • Recommendation for certification of the candidate for TRIZ Level 4 Specialist.

4.3. The thesis, abstract and scientific advisor's review must be published on the MATRIZ Official website within 10 days of its submission to the TMCC. All TMCC and CC4 members must have access to all candidate's thesis materials. Any individual TRIZ expert or regional TRIZ organization has the right to send their comments on the published thesis to the TMCC.

Note: All materials submitted to MATRIZ Official should not contain any confidential data and it should be possible to publish them in open sources of information. MATRIZ Official is not responsible for the disclosure of confidential information, if such information is included in submitted materials by a candidate.

Candidates may submit adapted reports on "made up" problems, which are based on real problems modified in such a way as to avoid disclosure of confidential information. In this case, the general approach to problem solving should be retained and meet the requirements of the present Regulations. In this case, a candidate should notify CC4 that he/she is going to present an adapted report on a "made up" problem for the defense purposes.

4.4.Within a period of no more than 4 weeks, CC4 reviews the application. During this process, the CC4 Chairman, appointed by the Chairman of the MATRIZ Official TMCC, appoints one or two independent reviewers who are at least TRIZ Level 4 Specialists to provide their official reviews on the received application. The reviews must be submitted within 2 weeks. The recommended structure and content of the review is the same as that of advisor’s review (see paragraph 4.2 of the current document).

4.5. If independent reviews are positive, then the CC4 chairman appoints a defense session to the closest date convenient for all parties involved. The session is typically held online - with the virtual presence of the candidate, his/her scientific advisor, CC4 members and possibly the reviewers.

4.6. If both reviews are negative, then the candidate is not allowed for the defense and the CC4 chairman provides him with feedback on what must be improved.

4.7. Registered members of MATRIZ Official have a right to attend a CC4 session and ask questions to candidates. Non-members’ participation is a subject of some fee.

4.8. The CC4 chairman and academic secretary of the TMCC are responsible for appointing members to the CC4 session, which should include at least 3

4.9. Recommended process for the CC4 session of МАTRIZ Official:

The session is conducted by its chairman or by the CC4 member appointed by the chairman.

    • Maximum 1 hour is scheduled for the presentation and discussion of the thesis.
    • This time includes a brief introduction by the scientific advisor (5 minutes), the applicant’s speech (20 minutes), optional reviewer’s speeches (5 minutes each), questions to the applicant and his/her answers (20 minutes), final speech of the CC4 chairman (5 minutes).
    • Questions to the applicants are asked first by the CC4 members who are present. If there are no questions from the CC4 members, other people present at the session may ask questions within the general time budget.

4.11. CC4 has the right to decide on changes to the schedule and program of its work.

4.12. For voting, CC4 members meet in closed session and decision is made by a simple majority vote.

4.13. The Chairman of the МАTRIZ Official TMCC formally recognizes the decision of CC4 (after checking it for compliance with provisions and regulations accepted in МАTRIZ Official) and hands it over to the president of МАTRIZ Official for an approval. After approval by the President, the Secretariat of the President prepares and sends to the new TRIZ Level 4 Specialist a certificate, which is signed by МАTRIZ Official President and Chairman of the TMCC. The signatures are certified by МАTRIZ Official seal.

4.14. A TRIZ specialist certified for the 4th Level receives a certificate on a special form of MATRIZ Official. The basis for TRIZ Level 4 - the research in TRIZ methodology, achievements in the practical application of TRIZ, or achievements in TRIZ training - is indicated in the certificate in addition to the name of a new TRIZ Level 4 specialist.

4.15. Information on a new TRIZ Level 4 Specialist should be published on the website of МАTRIZ Official within a week after the thesis defense, provided the certification fee is paid. The recorded CC4 session will be available for registered members of MATRIZ Official. For non-members this record will be available for a fee.

4.16. All disputable issues on decisions of the CC4 should be addressed by the МАTRIZ Official TMCC and be approved by the President of МАTRIZ Official.

5.    CC4 composition

5.1. The permanent CC4 is formed for a period of 2 years from the list of TRIZ Masters and Level 4 Specialists. Neither the President, nor the Executive Director of MATRIZ Official are allowed to be a CC4 member. The list of permanent CC4 members is reviewed and approved by the MATRIZ Official TMCC not later than one week after submission of the list and published on MATRIZ Official website.

5.2. The Chairman of the CC4 is appointed by the chairman of МАTRIZ Official TMCC for the same term (2 years). The Chairman of CC4 directs its activities, presides at CC4 sessions or appoints the Chairman from among the members of the CC4.