Ideadividing

Ideadividing is a planning technique that breaks a broad idea into smaller, more manageable components. The term is not standardized and appears across disciplines, but its aim is to clarify complexity by organizing ideas into hierarchical parts, functions, or goals.

Process: start with a clear central idea, identify primary objectives, and decompose these into sub-ideas or requirements, creating a hierarchical structure. Iterate by expanding where needed and consolidating to avoid duplication. Visuals such as outlines or mind maps are commonly used.

Methods: top-down and functional decompositions, feature-based breakdowns, and task decomposition. The approach combines divergent thinking to generate sub-ideas with convergent thinking to merge them. Documentation may be an outline, mind map, or requirements tree.

Applications: product design, software architecture, policy planning, project management, education, and creative problem solving.

Advantages and limitations: helps manage complexity, clarify responsibilities, and track progress. It can improve communication and reveal gaps, but may fragment the whole idea or cause duplication if not synchronized across levels. It also adds planning overhead.

Example: to improve urban mobility, ideadividing splits the goal into traffic flow, public transportation, pedestrian safety, data analysis, and public engagement, then further decomposes each into concrete tasks and criteria.

Etymology and status: blends 'idea' and 'dividing'. Used informally in brainstorming and design contexts; not a formal discipline with single standards.