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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/N07509/01
Title: DOCUMENTING OBJECT-ORIENTED FRAMEWORKS: AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION
Principal Investigator: Wood, Dr M. I.
Other Investigators:
Roper, Dr RMF
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Graham Technology Ltd
Department: Computer and Information Sciences
Organisation: University of Strathclyde
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 July 2000 Ends: 31 October 2003 Value (£): 120,632
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Software Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Information Technologies No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
A long standing goal of the software engineering community has been practical software reuse. Object frameworks are examples of software architectures that appear to offer realistic and practical opportunities for large-scale software reuse. In recent years frameworks have seen increasing popularity, both in the object-oriented research community and in a wide range of industrial applications. Whilst evidence suggests that framework usage can increase reusability and decrease development effort, experience has identified a number of issues that complicates framework application. One of the most important issues is framework documentation - how to document a framework so that others can understand the architecture and manipulate it correctly and reliably to generate specific applications. The aim of this proposal is to identify the difficulties in understanding object-oriented frameworks and to empirically evaluate a well-defined set of techniques for framework documentation through their application to industrial-strength case studies. It will identify framework documentation requirements, deliver practical guidance on documentation techniques to meet these requirements, and identify tool support for framework documentation and comprehension. This research will contribute to a long-standing problem in industrial software engineering, not just framework development - how to make software documentation readable, genuinely useful and maintainable rather than a necessary evil.
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Organisation Website: http://www.strath.ac.uk