Rationale leading to the adoption of a JavaScript framework
Amantia Pano, Daniel Graziotin, Pekka Abrahamsson · arXiv (Cornell University) · 2016
The increasing popularity of JavaScript (JS) has lead to a variety of JS frameworks (JSF) that aim to help developers to address programming tasks. However, the JSFs number has risen rapidly to thousands and more. It is challenging for practitioners to identify the frameworks that best fit to their needs and to develop new ones fitting such needs. There is a lack of knowledge regarding the processes and reasons that drive developers towards the choice. This paper explores the decision-making rationale that leads to a choice of a JSF. We conducted a qualitative interpretive study, following the grounded theory. We interviewed 18 participants, chosen up to reaching theoretical saturation, who are decision makers in their companies or entrepreneurs regarding the JSF selection. We offer a model of desirable JSF factors. The factors are usability (attractiveness, learnability, understandability), cost, efficiency (performance, size), and functionality (automatization, extensibility, flexibility, isolation, modularity, suitability, updates). A combination of four decision makers, which are customer, developer, team, and team leader, leads to the choice. Our model contributes to the body of knowledge related to the decision-making process when selecting a JSF. As a practical implication, our model is useful for Web and JSF developers.