Multi Frame Problem

Problems of significant complexity can often not be related to a single ProblemFrame, and must instead be considered and decomposed with respect to multiple frames.

MichaelJackson coined the term ProblemFrame to describe patterns in the problem space (cf; design patterns). Jackson documented a handful of frames, pertaining to basic problems like control, information management and the construction of virtual artifacts. Simple applications may be covered adequately by a single ProblemFrame, but more interesting ones can be analyzed and treated as MultiFrameProblems. For each part of the problem, the frame that fits it well suggests likely candidate methods for developing the software.

One interesting observation is that while Jackson considers the set of frames to be extensible beyond the ones he documented, this is rarely required because most problems that don't fit a single Jackson frame can be modeled as MultiFrameProblems. So in a sense, the vocabulary is complete, or very close.