Is there a systematic approach to avoid the 3 pitfalls(below) of software solutions ?

Question

1. Developing software solutions which already exist and are available for re-use (either commercial or open-source). AKA "re-inventing the wheel".
2. Same as above, but your solution being broken. AKA "re-inventing the square wheel".
3. Developing solutions for problems which do not exist.

Again, I'm interested in a more formal approach, e.g. TRIZ

Answer 1

Doing some research beforehand (1) and investing in solid software architecture (2,3) usually helps :)

When you're planning to develop something you always need to calculate the benefits of doing some and the things like the ROI.

You could read more about this in Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn

Answer 2

1. Local Market Research
2. Internet Research
3. Google Metrics (Seeing what the Google Count is)