diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index f1681dd5..c0225320 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -9,7 +9,10 @@ php:
 #  - nightly
 before_install:
   - nvm install 6.11
+  - sudo apt-get install graphviz
 install:
+  # fix for jms/serializer 1.7.1 not being able to run on 5.4
+  - if [[ ${TRAVIS_PHP_VERSION:0:3} == "5.4" ]]; then composer require jms/serializer; fi
   - composer install
   - npm install
 before_script:
diff --git a/composer.json b/composer.json
index 12ede17e..0ffae141 100644
--- a/composer.json
+++ b/composer.json
@@ -19,7 +19,8 @@
     "require-dev": {
         "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.0",
         "squizlabs/php_codesniffer": "^3.0.1",
-        "phpdocumentor/phpdocumentor": "~2.9"
+        "phpdocumentor/phpdocumentor": "~2.9",
+        "jms/serializer": "1.7.1"
     },
     "autoload": {
         "psr-4": {