FrameScan: Exploring O-O Framework Usage

While much research has been conducted on the design of object-oriented frameworks, few usability studies have been done with frameworks to determine how software practitioners can understand and use frameworks. The empirical study presented in this paper addresses how software practitioners obtain an initial understanding of a framework and how they build and maintain framework expertise within the project group. The objective of this stage of our study is not to reach final conclusions about framework usage, but rather to generate hypotheses for further investigation in later stages of the study. It lays the foundation for the development of continuous studies leading to: i) understanding requirements of tool support for effective large-scale usage, ii) the feasibility of creating and maintaining an experience bases around the framework and iii) better understanding of the problems developers face in order to develop better framework documentation