UML Profile for Framework Architectures, The

7.4. Identification of a framework's variation points

What makes a 'good' framework? Actually, this provocative and probably oversimplified question cannot be answered without understanding the relevant domain and its inherent flexibility requirements. In other words, striving for flexibility for flexibility's sake, achieved by incorporating as many design patterns as possible, does not result in a good framework. On the contrary, unnecessary flexibility leads to significantly more complexity. Frameworks must be adaptable in an adequate way depending on domain-specific requirements.

Overall, flexibility has to be injected into a framework in appropriate doses.^[2] As the quality of a framework depends directly on the appropriateness of its variation ...