Exploring O-O framework usage (poster session)

Object-oriented application frameworks are becoming an increasingly popular part of software development but there has been little work on studying how they are actually used. An object-oriented application framework comprises a design and an object-oriented implementation of that design meant to apply to a broad range of applications, or subsystems within a single domain, such as graphical user interfaces. FrameScan is an ongoing study with the goal of understanding how developers can effectively and efficiently understand and deploy framework technology to construct and evolve their applications. In order to study how frameworks are used, 34 students of a senior year software engineering course were divided up into six teams of five or six students each. Each team had three months to design and implement a small client-server application of their choosing with the requirement that a framework for client-server computing called CSF (Client-Server Framework) be used as part of the project. The conclusions of the study are presented.