A framework instantiation approach based on the features model

The extreme competitiveness of the contemporary economy generates a huge demand for cheaper, efficient and reliable software products, which often are developed under great pressures of time and budget. These premises suggest that software development must take place in an environment where proven solutions can be modified, combined and adapted to be used in the development of new products. Therefore, the use of object-oriented frameworks, or frameworks for short, seems to be one of the most promising techniques for code and design reuse. Nevertheless, one of the obstacles that has to be removed before the widespread use of frameworks is the great amount of time for study necessary to become proficient in the use of a specific framework. This situation occurs due to the inherent complexity of the design of the frameworks, which are conceived to fulfill the requirements of an entire application family. In this context, this work presents a detailed description of a high-level framework instantiation process based on the Features Model. This model is responsible for presenting a simplified view of the framework's main functional and technological characteristics to application developers. In a subsequent step, the instantiation process adapts the original design of the framework to produce a new design for a specific member of an application family. All of the adaptation's steps will be based on choices available in the Features Model.