A framework provides the architectural approach to flexible robust systems as well as the process for pre-building, assembling and configuring key (re-useable) components. These components are explicitly designed for re-usable and can be (re)- assembled to meet the very specific business needs of a client. A framework provides:

• the structure for development, including the separation of concerns and the infrastructure to plumb these together.
• Generic services (in the case of a metaframework – sub frameworks) – such as security, logging, configuration, user management, persistence and caching etc.
• Component tools and methods that simplify and accelerate the development process (eg code generation and automated testing tools).