Context: The Internet has become a vital channel for disseminating and accessing scientific literature for both the academic and industrial research needs. Nowadays, everyone has wide access to scientific literature repositories, which comprise of both “white” and “Grey” literature. The “Grey” literature, as opposed to “white” literature, is non-peer reviewed scientific information that is not available using commercial information sources such as IEEE or ACM. A large number of software engineering researchers are undertaking systematic literature reviews (SLRs) to investigate empirical evidence in software engineering. The key reason to include grey literature during information synthesis is to minimize the risk of any bias in the publication. Using the state of the art non-commercial databases that index information, the researchers can make the rigorous process of searching empirical studies in SLRs easier. This study explains the evidence of Grey literature while performing synthesis in Systematic Literature Reviews. Objectives: The goals of this thesis work are, 1. To identify the extent of usage of Grey Literature in synthesis during systematic literature reviews. 2. To investigate if non-commercial information sources primarily Google Scholar are sufficient for retrieving primary studies for SLRs. Methods: The work consists of a systematic literature review of SLRs and is a tertiary study and meta-analysis. The systematic literature review was conducted on 138 SLRs’ published through 2003 until 2012 (June). The article sources used are IEEEXplore, ACM Digital Library, Springer-Link and Science Direct. Results: For each of the selected article sources such as ACM, IEEEXplore, Springer-link and Science Direct, we have presented results, which describe the extent of the usage of Grey literature. The qualitative results discuss various strategies for systematic evaluation of the Grey literature during systematic literature review. The quantitative results comprise of charts and tables, showing the extent of Grey literature usage. The results from analysis of Google Scholar database describe the total number of primary studies that we are able to find using only Google Scholar database. Conclusion: From the analysis of 138 Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs’), we conclude that the evidence of Grey literature in SLRs is around 9%. The percentage of Grey literature sources used in information synthesis sections of SLRs is around 93.2%. We were able to retrieve around 96 % of primary studies using Google Scholar database. We conclude that Google Scholar can be a choice for retrieving published studies however; it lacks detailed search options to target wider pool of articles. We also conclude that Grey literature is widely available in this age of information. We have provided guidelines in the form of strategies for systematic evaluation of Grey literature. / Sammanhang: Internet har blivit en viktig kanal för att sprida och få tillgång vetenskaplig litteratur för både akademiska och industriella forskningsbehov. Numera har alla bred tillgång till vetenskaplig litteratur förråd, som omfattar både "vit" och "grå" litteratur. Den "grå" litteratur, som motsats till "vita" litteratur, är icke-vetenskapligt granskad vetenskaplig information som inte är tillgänglig med kommersiella informationskällor såsom IEEE och ACM. Ett stort antal forskare software engineering genomför systematiska litteraturöversikter (systemkameror) för att undersöka empiriska bevis programvaruteknik. Den viktigaste orsaken till att omfatta grå litteratur under Information syntes är att minimera risken för att partiskhet i publikationen. Använda toppmoderna icke-kommersiella databaser som indexerar information kan forskarna göra rigorösa processen att söka empiriska studier i systemkameror lättare. Denna studie förklarar bevis på grå litteratur när de utför syntes i systematiska litteraturöversikter. Mål: Målen med detta examensarbete är, 1. För att identifiera omfattningen av användningen av Grey litteratur i syntes under systematisk litteratur recensioner. 2. För att undersöka om icke-kommersiella informationskällor främst Google Scholar är tillräckliga för att hämta primära studier för systemkameror. Metoder: Verket består av en systematisk litteraturgenomgång av systemkameror och är en tertiär studie och metaanalys. Den systematiska litteraturstudie genomfördes på 138 systemkameror "publiceras via 2003 till 2012 (juni). Artikeln används källorna är IEEEXplore, ACM Digital Library, Springer-Link och Science Direct. Resultat: För vart och ett av de utvalda artikeln källor såsom ACM, IEEEXplore, Springer-länk och Science Direct, har vi presenterat resultat, som beskriver omfattningen av användningen av grå litteratur. De kvalitativa resultaten diskuterar olika strategier för systematisk utvärdering av grå litteratur under systematisk litteraturöversikt. De kvantitativa resultaten består av diagram och tabeller, som visar omfattningen av Grey litteratur användning. Resultaten från analys av Google Scholar-databasen beskriver det totala antalet primära studier som vi kan hitta med enbart Google Scholar databas. Slutsats: Av analysen av 138 systematiska litteraturöversikter (systemkameror) kan vi dra slutsatsen att bevisen för grå litteratur i systemkameror är cirka 9%. Den procentuella andelen Grey litteraturkällor som används i avsnitt informations syntes av systemkameror är cirka 93,2%. Vi kunde hämta omkring 96% av primära studier med Google Scholar databas. Vi drar slutsatsen att Google Scholar kan vara ett val för hämta publicerade studier dock, det saknar detaljerade sökalternativ för att rikta större pool av artiklar. Vi avslutar också att grå litteratur är allmänt tillgänglig i denna tid av information. Vi har försett riktlinjer i form av strategier för systematisk utvärdering av Grey litteratur. / Affan Yasin : Skype id (affan.yasin) Ijlal Hasnain: Skype id (bluesols)

Software Product Lines (SPL) is a relatively new way of working in software development. A SPL is an enforced architecture and a collection of components common for more than one product within a domain. Development using SPL utilizes tools and techniques for creating software systems from a common set of core assets in order to satisfy a certain market. In this study we investigate how to proceed when transitioning to a SPL development approach by evaluating proposed and used adoption approaches, methods and frameworks. We performed a systematic literature review using three main sources; Compendex/Inspec, CiteSeerX and Google Scholar. The results are analyzed using a qualitative analysis technique called Recursive Abstraction where the results are iteratively summarized to extract the essence of the data. A manageable collection of frameworks, methods and approaches are summarized as a starting point for a reader who wants to dig deeper into the subject. A set of guidelines is suggested for companies who are considering a transition to SPL development. We also investigate the link between SPL and organization maturity, with a focus on the benefits of combining a SPL initiative with a CMMI initiative. We conclude that the transition process should not be taken lightly; in most cases it should be made in incremental steps. There is a fairly standard approach to adopt SPL and there are a few frameworks that are commonly accepted. However, we also conclude that most research areas of SPL development lacks in validation. Concerning the link between SPL and CMMI we identify some PA's that are more important when considering SPL development and a few others that may be harder to execute. We conclude that SPL benefits from process maturity and discipline as SPL development is process controlled and a lack in process discipline may cause corrosion of the SPL. A CMMI maturity level of Defined processes should be considered a prerequisite for a complete SPL practice. We could not find any indication that the organization maturity would benefit from SPL practices alone. Neither could we identify any drawbacks of having both an CMMI initiative and SPL transition initiative within the same organization.

Bakgrund: Att förlora ett barn är det värsta tänkbara som kan ske i livet. Sorgen som kommer med förlusten är tid- och energikrävande. Många förlustdrabbade föräldrar klarar av hanteringen av sorgen vid förlusten, men många föräldrar gör det inte. Klarar föräldrarna inte av att hantera sorgen finns risken för en långdragen sorgereaktion/kronisk sorg. Detta kan leda till sjukskrivningar på grund av psykisk ohälsa. Det är därför viktigt att sjuksköterskan har kunskap om detta område för att kunna sätta in relevanta resurser. Syfte: Syftet var att utforska hur föräldrar hanterar sin sorg efter förlusten av ett barn. Metod: Litteraturöversikt är metoden som används för detta arbete. Databaser som användes för datainsamlingen var CINAHL Complete, PubMed, Nurse and Allied Health Database och PsychInfo. De tio vetenskapliga artiklarna som framkom i sökningarna har analyserats enligt Fribergs analysmetod där likheter och skillnader studerats i hur föräldrar hanterar sorgen efter förlusten av ett barn. Resultat: Resultatet redovisar de fyra teman som framkom i analysen av datan. 1) Stöd; 2) Bevara minnet av barnet; 3) Skapa ett nytt vardagsliv; 4) Att vila i sin tro: mening och acceptans. I dessa fyra teman redovisas ytterligare underteman för att förtydliga resultatet. Diskussion: I diskussionen hanteras resultatet med annan litteratur. Vikten av ett gott stöd och socialt nätverk vid en förlust. I diskussionen redogörs även symboler och ritualens påverkan på människan efter en förlust och meningen med att förlora en nära relation och att kunna acceptera döden. Sist redovisas genusskillnader i relation till hantering av sorg. I diskussionen implementeras teorin pendlingsmodellen av Stoebe och Schut. / Background: The loss of a child is the most devastating bereavement a parent can experience. The grief that comes with the loss is both time and energy-consuming. Many parents can cope with the grief that arises, however some parents do not. If the bereaved parents cannot cope with the grief they run the risk of developing long-term/chronic grief. The mental illness caused by the sorrow can lead to absence from work for the bereaved parents. It is therefore important that nurses have a good understanding of this subject in order for them to be able to take the best course of action. Aim: The aim of this study is to explore how parents cope with their grief after the death of their child. Method: This study is a literature review. The databases that were used for the data collection were CINAHL Complete, PubMed, Nurse and Allied Health Database and PsycInfo. The ten scientific articles found in the searches performed were analyzed by using Friberg´s method of analysis where similarities and differences in how bereaved parents cope with the grief was examined Results: The result is presented in four themes that were discovered in the data analysis. 1) Support; 2) Embalm the memory of the child; 3) Create a new daily life; 4) Rest in belief: meaning and acceptance. Discussion: In the discussion, the result is compared to other literature. When experiencing bereavement the social support is significant. The effects of Symbols and rituals on bereaved people are presented, as is the meaning found in the loss of a close relationship and being able to accept death. Finally, gender differences in coping with grief are described. Dual Process model of coping by Stroebe and Schut is implemented in the discussion.

Bakgrund: De som lever med hjärtsvikt är en stor patientgrupp i Sverige. Tidigare forskning påvisar att egenvård är viktigt vid en kronisk sjukdom. Sjuksköterskans roll är att utbilda och informera patienter om egenvårdsåtgärder. Det eftersträvas att patienten själv ska känna igen symtom, tecken och försämring för att kunna utföra god egenvård. Syfte: Beskriva erfarenheter av egenvård hos patienter med hjärtsvikt utifrån Riegel et al. egenvårdsmodell. Metod: Litteraturöversikten har genomförts utifrån kvalitativ metod och deduktiv ansats. En egenvårdsmodell har använts som teori och en kvalitativ analysmodell har använts i analysprocessen där 12 vetenskapliga artiklar har granskats. Resultat: Patienter med hjärtsvikt beskrev ett behov av att bland annat utforma strategier, ha ett socialt stöd och uppleva psykiskt välbefinnande för att förbättra upplevelsen av egenvård uttryckt från egenvårdsmodellens kategorier self-care maintenance, self-care monitoring och self-care management. Slutsats: Patienternas anpassning i vardagen, psykiska välbefinnande och sociala samhörighet påverkade egenvård. Sjuksköterskan kan utifrån litteraturöversikten få en ökad förståelse för individens upplevelser vilket förväntas påverka bemötandet och utformandet av den personcentrerade omvårdnaden.

Background: Heart failure is seen as a global public disease, it is one of the most common public diseases in Sweden today. The guidelines for treatment of heart failure include recommendations for physical exercise. Treatment-methods are constantly evolving, the focus of this study is on physical exercise, which is most relevant in society. Purpose: To describe the effect of physical exercise / activity in people with heart failure. Method: The literature review studied articles with a quantitative approach. Nine articles were included in the study. Results: Only results with a positive significant effect of physical exercise in people with heart failure could be found. The training methods that was used were walking-training, aerobics, cycling and interval training. Conclusion: The overview has provided knowledge of the positive impact of physical exercise for people with heart failure. In practice, the nurse provides evidence to motivate people with heart failure to an active life where there are no reasons for fear of movement.

Context: Software development in a setting in which the development sites are dispersed across geographical areas, either close proximity or globally, is fast becoming a widespread trend. This software development arrangement is also known as Global Software Development (GSD) or Distributed Software Development (DSD) or Global Software Engineering (GSE). Projects executed by a dispersed team have been noted as a more risky and challenging venture than projects run with teams under the same roof. Therefore the knowledge of the potential challenges and the probable mitigation strategies for GSD is vital for running a successful project. Objectives: The study entails the identification of GSD related challenges as well as their mitigation strategies. The collected challenges and mitigation strategies are later compiled into checklists. The developed checklists can be incorporated into risk management process particularly risk identification and risk mitigation planning. Methods: This research extends an existing systematic literature study conducted on empirical research on GSD, which was based on a review of publications from 2000 to 2007. The previous research is incorporated in this research and, in addition, papers between 2007 and 2009 are reviewed. In contrast to the previous research was aimed at gathering empirical evidence in GSD, however in this research the focus is specifically on challenges associated with GSD projects as well as the mitigation strategies that can be employed. An industrial survey was also conducted to validate the checklists and determine if the identified challenges and mitigation strategies were pervasive in industry. Furthermore interviews were also conducted to further validate the usefulness and usability of the developed checklists. Result: As a result, from the systematic literature review for publications between 2000 and 2009, a total of 48 challenges and 42 mitigation strategies were identified and placed in two separate categorized checklists. These challenges and mitigation strategies are elaborated in this paper. From the survey result, no additional challenges and 4 strategies were identified in the survey. Meanwhile from the interviews, all interviewees reported that the checklists are useful and easy to use. Conclusion: The absence of new challenges being identified from the study did not merit a conclusion that all possible challenges in GSD have been revealed. Therefore we conclude that more empirical research still needs to be done on identifying the challenges and mitigation strategies associated with GSD settings. Furthermore the checklists can be useful and valuable in identifying challenges and the potential mitigation strategies for communication, control and coordination mechanisms in distributed software development projects.

Context: In the last decade, Agile software development methods were proposed as a response to plan-driven methods. The main aim for this paradigm shift was to cope up with constant changes. Core values that are central to agile methods are described in Agile Manifesto. Agile practices define how agile methods are implemented in practice. Objectives: This study aims to investigate what practices were considered and adopted as part of agile philosophy, and identify evidence on the use of agile practices in reference to what defines agile. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review. The review includes 186 primary studies published between 2000 and 2010. Quality assessment based on rigor and relevance as identified in the selected papers has been conducted. Non-empirical papers were classified based on themes they addressed. Empirical papers were analyzed based on two factors: 1. if they described the use of agile practices for a software project/product in general, 2. if they described the use of agile practices for a specific purpose/activity Application type, team size and experience of subjects in the primary studies were extracted. The alignment between practices reported in the studies with the core agile values is analyzed. Results: A total of 119 studies were conducted in industry and 67 in academia. Nearly half the papers published by researchers are non-empirical and present analysis of agile practices in various topics. Over half of the empirical papers were focused on evaluation/assessment of a specific aspect of agile. ‘Pair programming’ received most attention in this direction. Among the empirical studies that described agile practices for academic projects, ‘Pair programming’ and ‘Test driven development’ were the most considered practices. Among the 119 studies conducted in industry, 93 studies described the use of agile practices for the overall project/product development while the remaining studies described experiences of single practices like Pair Programming or the modification/adoption of agile for non-software aspects in software projects. Practices adopted have been ranked based on team size, practitioners’ experience and application type. A method for agile assessment based on core agile values is developed and exemplified. Conclusions: Practices that are considered agile vary with context although ‘Pair programming’, ‘Continuous integration’, ‘Refactoring and Testing continuous throughout the project are the most common practices used. ‘Test driven development’ was not highly adopted by practitioners. But it was not clear if test cases were written before code construction in projects where continuous testing was performed. However, this was completely opposite in academic projects. Practices ‘On-site frequently modified. In many of the studies inspected, practices adopted were not aligned with agile values. Although practices related to technical aspects of software development are in place, agile practices that focus aspects like ‘working together’ and ‘motivated individuals’ are often not used in practice. Moreover, many of the studies were not reported to an extent that it was possible to draw any inferences on the usability/applicability, benefits and limitations of the agile practices. To this end, a major implication is to improve the quality of the studies and a need for a common framework to report the results of agile practices’ adoption.

ABSTRACT Context: Requirements triage is a crucial activity in requirements engineering process for market-driven products. Triage deals with selection of appropriate requirements from large number of requirements for particular release plan. If triage is not performed initially, selection and management of a large number of requirements would be difficult in requirements engineering process. In market-driven product development triage is followed by estimation and prioritization of requirements to be selected for a particular release plan, also termed as requirements selection. Product development is done based on the set of requirements selected in requirements selection process. Objectives: The objective of the thesis is to find whether there is a need to improve existing requirements triage process or not, identify the challenges and shortcomings of the existing requirements triage and selection solutions and suggest improvements to address identified challenges and shortcomings. Methods: In order to identify existing requirements triage and selection solutions (method, model, tool, technique, process, and others), challenges addressed by existing requirements triage and selection solutions, and the shortcomings faced while implementing them, a systematic literature review has been done. A list of challenges and shortcomings, identified through the analysis of systematic literature review results, was used as an input to industrial survey to confirm most applicable (relevant) challenges and shortcomings and to identify possibilities to address those challenges and shortcomings. Results: A process framework for requirements triage has been proposed to address the challenges faced by practitioners during triage. The steps and solutions proposed within the framework also enable to alleviate the shortcomings of the existing requirements triage solutions. Conclusions: The results of the survey have been analyzed from different perspectives: size of organization, number of requirements handled per month and experience of professional doing triage. Therefore, the proposed process framework is usable and useful for both small-scale and large-scale organizations. The initial effort required to put framework process steps in place would be high, however, later the effort will reduce not only for requirements triage but also for later phases in requirements engineering. As a spin off effect the quality of triage decision is increased.

Context: Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a universal and standard modeling language that has been extensively used in software development process. Due to overlap and synchronous nature among different modeling artefacts in UML, several consistency issues have been identified in many software development projects that may lead to project failure. To reduce the level of such threat, over the past decade, a substantial research addressing those problems has been done both in academic and industry. This study is intended to investigate the reported research and to provide a systematic picture on different researched aspects of UML model inconsistencies, using the systematic mapping method. Objectives: The overall goal was to be achieved by fulfilling the following two main objectives: elaborating a proper and justified tool for performing the mapping and later used the tool in order to obtain a systematic and multidimensional picture of the approaches and the performed research in the area relating to different issues considering inconsistencies when using UML in software development. Research Methods: In order to ensure quality of the final foreseen systematic picture of the conducted research, a considerable effort was put first on a preparation of the tool that was used to obtain the mapping. The tool was a rigorous process based on classification methods and mapping guidelines obtained from a systematic literature review on the systematic mapping in software engineering. Then the tool was applied in a systematic way to obtain a number of mappings, followed by the analysis of the obtained results. Results: The systematic literature review resulted in identifying 5 mapping guidelines, 21 classifications, and 2 categorization methods. After analysis of them, a justified mapping process was developed by selecting standard guidelines, appropriate classifications and categorization methods. The mapping process applied for the period of 1999-2012 revealed 198 relevant studies developed by 321 researchers. On the basis this evidences, a number of mappings illustrating the conducted research on UML model inconsistencies ware obtained. The mapping reviled that the published research is mostly focused on rather formal issues such as semantic, syntactic, intramodel, inter-model and evolution problems, while a less attention is placed on more practical on time, and security problems. When the quality of research is concerned, 38% of papers proposed solutions as well as validated them through academic, industry or both, 35% of papers proposed only solutions. When the usage of empirical methods is considered, case studies are most frequently used (in almost half of the relevant papers) and followed by experiments (reported in 15% of papers), while 25% carried works do on report a systematic method used. Conclusions: The findings of systematic mapping study revealed that there are some aspect related to consistency such as time and security that are not given big attention. Identification and in-depth studying of inconsistencies in UML designs along with their dependencies are also missing. Most of the investigations are also academic with no evidence whether these reports produce interest for industry or not. State-of-the-art followed by state-of-the-practice studies related to consistency checking techniques and validating them in real industrial setting could be recommended. / Context: Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a universal and standard modeling language that has been extensively used in software development process. Due to overlap and synchronous nature among different modeling artefacts in UML, several consistency issues have been identified in many software development projects that may lead to project failure. To reduce the level of such threat, over the past decade, a substantial research addressing those problems has been done both in academic and industry. This study is intended to investigate the reported research and to provide a systematic picture on different researched aspects of UML model inconsistencies, using the systematic mapping method. Objectives: The overall goal was to be achieved by fulfilling the following two main objectives: elaborating a proper and justified tool for performing the mapping and later used the tool in order to obtain a systematic and multidimensional picture of the approaches and the performed research in the area relating to different issues considering inconsistencies when using UML in software development. Research Methods: In order to ensure quality of the final foreseen systematic picture of the conducted research, a considerable effort was put first on a preparation of the tool that was used to obtain the mapping. The tool was a rigorous process based on classification methods and mapping guidelines obtained from a systematic literature review on the systematic mapping in software engineering. Then the tool was applied in a systematic way to obtain a number of mappings, followed by the analysis of the obtained results. Results: The systematic literature review resulted in identifying 5 mapping guidelines, 21 classifications, and 2 categorization methods. After analysis of them, a justified mapping process was developed by selecting standard guidelines, appropriate classifications and categorization methods. The mapping process applied for the period of 1999-2012 revealed 198 relevant studies developed by 321 researchers. On the basis this evidences, a number of mappings illustrating the conducted research on UML model inconsistencies ware obtained. The mapping reviled that the published research is mostly focused on rather formal issues such as semantic, syntactic, intramodel, inter-model and evolution problems, while a less attention is placed on more practical on time, and security problems. When the quality of research is concerned, 38% of papers proposed solutions as well as validated them through academic, industry or both, 35% of papers proposed only solutions. When the usage of empirical methods is considered, case studies are most frequently used (in almost half of the relevant papers) and followed by experiments (reported in 15% of papers), while 25% carried works do on report a systematic method used. Conclusions: The findings of systematic mapping study revealed that there are some aspect related to consistency such as time and security that are not given big attention. Identification and in-depth studying of inconsistencies in UML designs along with their dependencies are also missing. Most of the investigations are also academic with no evidence whether these reports produce interest for industry or not. State-of-the-art followed by state-of-the-practice studies related to consistency checking techniques and validating them in real industrial setting could be recommended.

Context: Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a universal and standard modeling language that has been extensively used in software development process. Due to overlap and synchronous nature among different modeling artefacts in UML, several consistency issues have been identified in many software development projects that may lead to project failure. To reduce the level of such threat, over the past decade, a substantial research addressing those problems has been done both in academic and industry. This study is intended to investigate the reported research and to provide a systematic picture on different researched aspects of UML model inconsistencies, using the systematic mapping method. Objectives: The overall goal was to be achieved by fulfilling the following two main objectives: elaborating a proper and justified tool for performing the mapping and later used the tool in order to obtain a systematic and multidimensional picture of the approaches and the performed research in the area relating to different issues considering inconsistencies when using UML in software development. Research Methods: In order to ensure quality of the final foreseen systematic picture of the conducted research, a considerable effort was put first on a preparation of the tool that was used to obtain the mapping. The tool was a rigorous process based on classification methods and mapping guidelines obtained from a systematic literature review on the systematic mapping in software engineering. Then the tool was applied in a systematic way to obtain a number of mappings, followed by the analysis of the obtained results. Results: The systematic literature review resulted in identifying 5 mapping guidelines, 21 classifications, and 2 categorization methods. After analysis of them, a justified mapping process was developed by selecting standard guidelines, appropriate classifications and categorization methods. The mapping process applied for the period of 1999-2012 revealed 198 relevant studies developed by 321 researchers. On the basis this evidences, a number of mappings illustrating the conducted research on UML model inconsistencies ware obtained. The mapping reviled that the published research is mostly focused on rather formal issues such as semantic, syntactic, intramodel, inter-model and evolution problems, while a less attention is placed on more practical on time, and security problems. When the quality of research is concerned, 38% of papers proposed solutions as well as validated them through academic, industry or both, 35% of papers proposed only solutions. When the usage of empirical methods is considered, case studies are most frequently used (in almost half of the relevant papers) and followed by experiments (reported in 15% of papers), while 25% carried works do on report a systematic method used. Conclusions: The findings of systematic mapping study revealed that there are some aspect related to consistency such as time and security that are not given big attention. Identification and in-depth studying of inconsistencies in UML designs along with their dependencies are also missing. Most of the investigations are also academic with no evidence whether these reports produce interest for industry or not. State-of-the-art followed by state-of-the-practice studies related to consistency checking techniques and validating them in real industrial setting could be recommended. / Context: Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a universal and standard modeling language that has been extensively used in software development process. Due to overlap and synchronous nature among different modeling artefacts in UML, several consistency issues have been identified in many software development projects that may lead to project failure. To reduce the level of such threat, over the past decade, a substantial research addressing those problems has been done both in academic and industry. This study is intended to investigate the reported research and to provide a systematic picture on different researched aspects of UML model inconsistencies, using the systematic mapping method. Objectives: The overall goal was to be achieved by fulfilling the following two main objectives: elaborating a proper and justified tool for performing the mapping and later used the tool in order to obtain a systematic and multidimensional picture of the approaches and the performed research in the area relating to different issues considering inconsistencies when using UML in software development. Research Methods: In order to ensure quality of the final foreseen systematic picture of the conducted research, a considerable effort was put first on a preparation of the tool that was used to obtain the mapping. The tool was a rigorous process based on classification methods and mapping guidelines obtained from a systematic literature review on the systematic mapping in software engineering. Then the tool was applied in a systematic way to obtain a number of mappings, followed by the analysis of the obtained results. Results: The systematic literature review resulted in identifying 5 mapping guidelines, 21 classifications, and 2 categorization methods. After analysis of them, a justified mapping process was developed by selecting standard guidelines, appropriate classifications and categorization methods. The mapping process applied for the period of 1999-2012 revealed 198 relevant studies developed by 321 researchers. On the basis this evidences, a number of mappings illustrating the conducted research on UML model inconsistencies ware obtained. The mapping reviled that the published research is mostly focused on rather formal issues such as semantic, syntactic, intramodel, inter-model and evolution problems, while a less attention is placed on more practical on time, and security problems. When the quality of research is concerned, 38% of papers proposed solutions as well as validated them through academic, industry or both, 35% of papers proposed only solutions. When the usage of empirical methods is considered, case studies are most frequently used (in almost half of the relevant papers) and followed by experiments (reported in 15% of papers), while 25% carried works do on report a systematic method used. Conclusions: The findings of systematic mapping study revealed that there are some aspect related to consistency such as time and security that are not given big attention. Identification and in-depth studying of inconsistencies in UML designs along with their dependencies are also missing. Most of the investigations are also academic with no evidence whether these reports produce interest for industry or not. State-of-the-art followed by state-of-the-practice studies related to consistency checking techniques and validating them in real industrial setting could be recommended. / C/o Thalanki Anjaneyulu, H.No.76/119-D5-43, Mahaveer Colony, B.G.Road, Kurnool -518003, Andhra Pradesh, India