Mapping Study on Constraint Consistency Checking in Distributed Enterprise Systems

Constraint consistency errors in distributed systems can lead to fatal consequences when left unobserved and undetected. The primary goal of quality engineers should be to avoid system inconsistencies in general. However, it is typically a much more straight forward process in monolith-like systems with one codebase than in distributed solutions where heterogeneity occurs across modules. In this paper, we raise the research question of what is the existing state-of-the-art and research literature practice when it comes to consistency checking in distributed systems. We conducted a systematic search for existing work and assess the evidence to categorize the approaches and to identify used techniques. Identified works offer interesting directions and achievements. Often the works share tool prototypes and instruments to build on the top of when performing further research in this direction and we share them in this paper. Finally, we discuss open challenges and gaps in this field to promote the interest of the research audience.