Investigating the effects of framework design knowledge in example-based framework learning

Studying example applications is a common approach to learning software frameworks. However, to be truly effective in adapting example solutions with high confidence and accuracy, a developer needs to learn enough about the framework designs. The empirical study described in this paper investigates the effectiveness of a new approach to framework learning, where example-based learning is augmented with instruction on framework designs. Learning framework designs up-front from an instructor helps developers acquire the necessary design knowledge and avoid the time-consuming task of recovering such knowledge from code and other artifacts. The particular question of interest in this study is how characteristics of the framework designs influence project outcome. 11 student projects are analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods to characterize the overall reuse practice and to detect salient patterns that address the question. The contribution of this paper is a set of well-supported hypotheses that can be tested in future studies as well as their implications.