Reordering the checks in shouldApplyUpdate + a simple unit test

src/main/java/org/codehaus/mojo/versions/AbstractVersionsUpdaterMojo.java

@@ -457,18 +457,18 @@ protected boolean shouldApplyUpdate( Artifact artifact, String currentVersion, A
     {
         getLog().debug( "Proposal is to update from " + currentVersion + " to " + updateVersion );
 
-        if ( forceUpdate )
-        {
-            getLog().info( "Force update enabled. LATEST or RELEASE versions will be overwritten with real version" );
-            return true;
-        }
-
         if ( updateVersion == null )
         {
             getLog().warn( "Not updating version: could not resolve any versions" );
             return false;
         }
 
+        if ( forceUpdate )
+        {
+            getLog().info( "Force update enabled. LATEST or RELEASE versions will be overwritten with real version" );
+            return true;
+        }
+
         artifact.setVersion( updateVersion.toString() );
         try
         {

src/test/java/org/codehaus/mojo/versions/UpdateParentMojoTest.java

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+package org.codehaus.mojo.versions;
+
+import org.apache.maven.artifact.Artifact;
+import org.apache.maven.artifact.factory.ArtifactFactory;
+import org.apache.maven.artifact.versioning.ArtifactVersion;
+import org.apache.maven.artifact.versioning.VersionRange;
+import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException;
+import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoFailureException;
+import org.apache.maven.project.MavenProject;
+import org.apache.maven.project.artifact.ProjectArtifact;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamException;
+import java.util.Collections;
+
+import static org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers.any;
+import static org.mockito.ArgumentMatchers.anyString;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.mock;
+import static org.mockito.Mockito.when;
+
+public class UpdateParentMojoTest {
+
+    @Test
+    public void testArtifactIdDoesNotExist() throws MojoExecutionException, XMLStreamException, MojoFailureException {
+        UpdateParentMojo mojo = new UpdateParentMojo() {
+            {
+                project = new MavenProject();
+                project.setParent(new MavenProject());
+                reactorProjects = Collections.emptyList();
+                forceUpdate = true;
+
+                artifactFactory = mock(ArtifactFactory.class);
+                when(artifactFactory.createDependencyArtifact(anyString(), anyString(), any(VersionRange.class),
+                        anyString(), anyString(), anyString()))
+                        .thenReturn(new ProjectArtifact(project));
+            }
+
+            protected ArtifactVersion findLatestVersion(Artifact artifact, VersionRange versionRange,
+                                                        Boolean allowingSnapshots, boolean usePluginRepositories) {
+                return null;
+            }
+        };
+        mojo.update(null);
+    }
+}