What leads developers towards the choice of a JavaScript framework?

Context. : The increasing popularity of JavaScript has lead to a variety of frameworks that aim to help developers to address programming tasks. However, the number of JavaScript Frameworks has risen rapidly to thousands and more. It is difficult for practitioners to identify the frameworks that best fit to their needs and to develop new frameworks that fit such needs. Existing research has focused in proposing software metrics for the frameworks, which do not carry a high value to practitioners. While benchmarks, technical reports, and experts’ opinions are available, they suffer the same issue that they do not carry much value. In particular, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the processes and reasons that drive developers towards the choice. ∗Corresponding author Email addresses: [email protected] (Amantia Pano), [email protected] (Daniel Graziotin), [email protected] (Pekka Abrahamsson) 1 ar X iv :1 60 5. 04 30 3v 1 [ cs .S E ] 1 3 M ay 2 01 6 Objective. : This paper explores the human aspects of software development behind the decision-making process that leads to a choice of a JavaScript Framework. Method. : We conducted a qualitative interpretive study, following the grounded theory data analysis methodology. We interviewed 18 participants who are decision makers in their companies or entrepreneurs, or are able to motivate the JavaScript Framework decision-making process. Results. : We offer a model of factors that are desirable to be found in a JavaScript Framework and a representation of the decision makers involved in the frameworks selection. The factors are usability (attractiveness, learnability, understandability), cost, efficiency (performance, size), and functionality (automatisation, extensibility, flexibility, isolation, modularity, suitability, updated). These factors are evaluated by a combination of four possible decision makers, which are customer, developer, team, and team leader. Conclusion. : Our model contributes to the body of knowledge related to the decision-making process when selecting a JavaScript framework. As a practical implication, we believe that our model is useful for (1) Web developers and (2) JavaScript framework developers.