Framework Characteristics - A Starting Point for Addressing Reuse Difficulties

Frameworks are a fundamental reuse technique, but they are often hard to learn and reuse. Documentation approaches and tools supporting instantiation have been the main research subjects for addressing framework reuse difficulties. This paper introduces a new approach that starts from a more fundamental level - framework characteristics. These are shaped by programming and design techniques, and their impact on reuse difficulties is analysed. From there, a framework model making a congruent combination of characteristics is defined. The results are demonstrated with a case study framework. Both the problem analysis and the proposed solution are relevant for the conference topics, namely framework reuse and design methods.