Abstract
In recent years, frameworks are very popular as they provide reusable solutions to very difficult problems. However, the number of frameworks for a given domain makes it difficult to select the most appropriate framework. Selecting the wrong framework or selecting a framework that has not yet matured can be disastrous for a project. The choice of an application framework can make or break a project. Unfortunately, the lack of formal criteria and metrics to objectively compare/contrast frameworks, assess the framework's capabilities, and determine the framework's suitability to a particular project, make framework selection extremely difficult. Very little research has been conducted on determining the suitability of a framework. This paper defines criteria that can be used at a high-level to understand a framework's overall usefulness and at a low-level to understand the framework's suitability to a particular domain. The defined criteria of our approach are then used to determine the suitability of using an example framework.