Supporting diversity with component frameworks as architectural elements

The author describes personal experience with component frameworks within a family architecture for a medical imaging product family. The component frameworks are handled as an integral part of the architectural approach and are an important means to support diversity in the functionality provided by the individual family members. The paper focuses on a particular kind of component framework that has been applied throughout the medical imaging product family. This kind of framework is useful when the various family members are based on the same concepts and the diversity is formed by the differences in the specific instances of these concepts that are present in the family members. These component frameworks have a number of similarities, allowing a standardised approach to their development. They support the division of the system into a generic architectural skeleton, which can be extended with plug-ins to realise specific family members, each with their own set of features.