1. A method for operating a data processing arrangement on which an application platform is implemented along with at least one application, the at least one application being executable on the application platform by accessing at least one application programming interface (API) of the application platform, the method comprising: checking, by an update module in the course of a change of version of the application platform or of a part of the platform, whether a more recent version of the application platform or part of the platform is consistent with a relatively older version of the application platform or part of the platform by comparing specification criteria and runtime behavior of an API included in the more recent version of the application platform with specification criteria and runtime behavior of an API included in the relatively older version of the application platform, the runtime behavior being determined based on at least a response time associated with invocation of an associated API or an accuracy of return values generated therefrom; and based on the checking of the consistency between the APIs of the more recent version and the older version of the application platform or a part thereof, overwriting the relatively older version of the application platform or part of the platform with the more recent version thereof if said API included in the more recent version of the platform is consistent in terms of the specification criteria and the runtime behavior with said API included in the older version of the platform, and installing the more recent version of the platform or at least its programming interface, in parallel with the relatively older version of the platform or its programming interface if said API included in the more recent version of the platform is inconsistent in terms of the specification criteria and the runtime behavior with said API included in the older version of the platform.