Framework

The Kernerman multilingual dictionary defined a framework as "the basic supporting structure of anything".

Various other dictionaries provide various slants of the definition, but perhaps, one of the more compelling definition, suitable for our work here is provided by the American Heritage dictionary "A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality"

-- Quotes from :Reference.com

Every engineering feat starts with some framework, formalized or otherwise, and frameworks have played and continued to play a very fundamental and important part in the expanding industrial and technology revolution mankind has been blessed with for more than half of a millennium.

Automobile Systems, Aeronautical Systems, Civil Engineering Systems, Electrical Power Systems, Electronic Designs, Communication Systems, and Computer Systems to name a few have benefited tremendously from "well articulated, clear, and concise abstractions of their fundamental building blocks" , which supports modularity and reuse, enabling graduated incremental improvements as well as parameterizable components useful for evaluation and measures.

Every complex system will benefit from the development a formal framework in that rebuilds, updates, upgrades, modularization, and vendor agnostics intrinsics can be supported. In economics terms, formal frameworks supports a robust cost to benefit ratio. At least, it provides a rational framework for measuring same.

Frameworks also have the value that, they support some level of standardization in design, documentation, evaluation, review and support holistic comparison and rational decision making.

This articlet is the first installment of a six series work designed to throw more light into the essence of this journal.