Automated UML visualization of software ecosystems: tracking versions, dependencies, and security updates

The growing complexity of software ecosystems—spanning multiple operating systems and their interconnected software components—poses significant challenges for documenting, visualizing, and maintaining these large systems over time. This complexity stems from the increasing number of components, their interdependencies, and rapid update cycles. In this work, we propose a release notes-driven approach that leverages Unified Modeling Language (UML), particularly component and package diagrams, to automate the visualization and monitoring of software architectures. Our method models peer relationships, stack dependencies, and hierarchical structures among components, addressing both architectural design clarity and cognitive scalability. By visually distinguishing critical information such as security updates (e.g., CVEs) and recent releases, our approach provides actionable information for software architects and engineers. We demonstrate practical use cases to highlight the effectiveness of our method in managing complex software ecosystems, enabling improved comprehension and decision-making within an ecosystem context.