First and foremost, an operational framework involves a list of all of the variables and individual ideas at work in your thesis. For example, if you are writing about parent-child relationships and their influence on academic achievement, topics such as "parental attitudes," "parent's ideas of childhood," and "children's perception of parents" will be on your list.
After you have a list of the variables involved in your thesis you will need to show the connections between them. Flow charts or mind maps are two possible ways of illustrating these connections.
After you have figured out the variables involved in your operational framework and how they are all related to each other, you will need to put all of this information into words. Depending on the length of your thesis, this section could be a few hundred or a few thousand words and you would use it to show your readers how the variables involved in your thesis work together. This section of your thesis works as a brief, but comprehensive guide to your subject that shows your expertise and demonstrates how you see your subject working. Because this section illustrates your understanding of your subject, it also allows your readers to better assess your own ideas and arguments.
As an outline of how the variables and/or ideas involved in your thesis work together, refer back to your operational framework throughout your thesis. For example, as you defend your arguments or conclusion, you could refer back to your operational framework to ground your case.