Identifying and Addressing Problems in Framework Reuse

Kirk, D.; Roper, Marc; Wood, Murray

doi:10.1109/wpc.2005.21

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In [KRW05], Kirk et al conducted a research, through observation of both novice and experienced users, where they identified four fundamental problems of framework reuse:…”

Section: Kirk Et Almentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and Tools for Improving Framework Understanding: A Collaborative Approach

Flores

Aguiar

2009

2009 Fourth International Conference on Software Engineering Advances

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Understanding a piece of software is an important activity of software development, and one with a big social emphasis. An average software project requires several people to work together in collaboration. When trying to understand programs, to maintain or evolve them, developers turn first to the code and, when that fails, to their social network, i.e., the development team. Nevertheless, it is not easy to go for the team, mainly due to the lack of expertise awareness (who to ask), wasteful interruptions of the wrong people (unclear expertise localisation) and unavailability (either due to intrusion or time constraints).Frameworks proved to be a powerful technique for large-scale reuse, but developers have to invest considerable effort to understand them. Their design is often very complex and hard to communicate, turning good quality documentation a crucial part. Producing such documentation can be costly as it needs to be easy to use, to cover different audiences, and to present different types of documents using different notations. But even if the documentation is produced with quality standards, the learners need to acquire knowledge from it and their cognitive needs must be attended. If the documentation doesn't help, or partially helps, how and where does the learner look for the knowledge needed to understand the framework and solve the task at hand?In this dissertation, the author pursues solutions to tackle these issues concerning framework understanding, aiming to answer how can framework understanding be improved and how can learners help each other without too much effort? The solutions proposed in this dissertation combine two approaches: best practices and collaborative learning.Observation and historical analysis show that understanding frameworks typically encompass a recurrent set of problems. If learners are aware of these obstacles and how to proceed to overcome them, they will surely accelerate their learning process. Therefore, a set of proven good solutions to those recurrent problems is presented in the form of patterns. These best practices aim at answering questions regarding where to start learning, at what level of abstraction should one go, how to cope with one's cognitive needs, and how to keep the knowledge produced. They provide a process of going through the documentation and, if it proves insufficient, alternative ways to gather information about the framework. To introduce collaboration into this learning experience, a collaborative environment was ii abstract developed -the DRIVER platform.The DRIVER platform is a collaborative learning environment where framework users can, in a non-intrusive way, store and share their learning knowledge while following the best practices of framework understanding (patterns). It provides a framework documentation repository, mounted on a wiki, where the learning paths (how did one learn) of the community of learners can be captured, shared, rated, and recommended. Combining these social activities, the DRIVER platform promotes coll...

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“…In [KRW05], Kirk et al conducted a research, through observation of both novice and experienced users, where they identified four fundamental problems of framework reuse:…”

Section: Kirk Et Almentioning

confidence: 99%

Patterns and Tools for Improving Framework Understanding: A Collaborative Approach

Flores

Aguiar

2009

2009 Fourth International Conference on Software Engineering Advances

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show abstract

“…[7]) to descriptive formally defined visual notations that extend UML [4], as well as mixed prescriptive-descriptive (e.g. [10]). Previous descriptive documentation approaches [2], [4], [5], [6], [8], [9], [10], [11], [22], were proposed independently of a framework model.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[10]). Previous descriptive documentation approaches [2], [4], [5], [6], [8], [9], [10], [11], [22], were proposed independently of a framework model. Although not explicitly stated they implicitly assume a few characteristics, generally largesized, whitebox, calling frameworks.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been widely recognized that it is necessary to effectively communicate frameworks and provide appropriate tool support, in order to minimize the effort required to build applications. Several steps have been given in this direction (e.g., [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]), but as is demonstrated in [10] difficulties still endure. We follow along these lines in order to get closer to the two-abovementioned goals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design and Description of a Classification System Framework for Easier Reuse

Lopes

Tavares

Monteiro

2007

14th Annual IEEE International Conference and Workshops on the Engineering of Computer-Based Systems (ECBS'07)

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Frameworks are an important technology to reduce software development costs and shorten the time-tomarket. However, framework complexity presents reuse problems that limit its success as an application development alternative. It has been widely recognized that is necessary to effectively communicate frameworks and provide appropriate tool support, but we argue that difficulties are also related to the considered framework model.We find that the level of support that tools can provide is decisively dependent on the kind of available framework documentation, which in turn is intimately tied to the considered framework model. In this paper, we present our framework model and respective supporting notation. We describe their appliance to the design and description of an application framework. This case study illustrates how the proposed model and documentation approach alleviate difficulties of framework reuse, namely its comprehension and instantiation.

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“…Several steps have been given in this direction (e.g., [1][2][3]), but as demonstrated in [4] difficulties still endure, such as mappings between conceptual solutions into concrete implementations for inexperienced users and the interactions among framework classes. Although often not explicitly stated, previous approaches addressing framework reuse difficulties have mostly considered large whitebox frameworks that are semi-finished applications.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Framework Characteristics - A Starting Point for Addressing Reuse Difficulties

Lopes

Afonso

Tavares

et al. 2009

2009 Fourth International Conference on Software Engineering Advances

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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.

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Identifying and Addressing Problems in Framework Reuse

Cited by 9 publications

References 7 publications

Patterns and Tools for Improving Framework Understanding: A Collaborative Approach

Patterns and Tools for Improving Framework Understanding: A Collaborative Approach

Design and Description of a Classification System Framework for Easier Reuse

Framework Characteristics - A Starting Point for Addressing Reuse Difficulties

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