E.4.CM:2 - Problem

A catalogue can cover each constituent operation and still leave a recurring whole problem unexplained. A practitioner must then select compatible operations, resolve different meanings, recognize what belongs to the environment, and determine which lower action changes when a higher requirement changes. A catalogue can also leave relationships among independent Methods unexplained: where one receives another’s result, which conditions they share, and when a failure calls for developing a method rather than repeating it. Only readers who can invent these connections benefit from the catalogue.

The opposite failure is to publish a broad umbrella that repeats its suppliers without constructing the connections. Its apparent completeness hides an unavailable operation or treats alternatives as mandatory stages. A third failure uses the author’s successful synthesis as evidence that the synthesis need not be made available to anyone else.