A systematic identification of consistency rules for UML diagrams

UML diagrams describe different views of one software. These diagrams strongly depend on each other and must therefore be consistent with one another, since inconsistencies between diagrams may be a source of faults during software development activities that rely on these diagrams. It is therefore paramount that consistency rules be defined and that inconsistencies be detected, analyzed and fixed. The relevant literature shows that authors typically define their own consistency rules, sometimes defining the same rules and sometimes defining rules that are already in the UML standard. The reason might be that no consolidated set of rules that are relevant by authors can be found to date. The aim of our research is to provide an up to date, consolidated set of UML consistency rules and obtain a detailed overview of the current research in this area. We therefore followed a systematic procedure in order to collect from literature up to March 2017 and analyze UML consistency rules. We then consolidated a set of 119 UML consistency rules (avoiding redundant definitions or definitions already in the UML standard), which can be used as an important reference for UML-based software development activities, for teaching UML-based software development, and for further research.