Catalog
method#Software Engineering#DevOps#Integration#Platform

Dependency Management

A method for governing, versioning and monitoring software dependencies across projects and organizations.

Dependency management is a structured method for governing, versioning and controlling software dependencies across projects and modules.
Established
Medium

Classification

  • Medium
  • Technical
  • Architectural
  • Intermediate

Technical context

CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI)Artifact registries (Nexus, Artifactory, GitHub Packages)Security scanning tools (Snyk, OWASP Dependency-Check)

Principles & goals

Prioritize explicit versions and lockfilesIntegrate automated security and license checksClear governance for upgrade and release processes
Build
Team, Domain, Enterprise

Use cases & scenarios

Compromises

  • Wrong centralization can throttle innovation speed
  • Blindly accepting automated updates without tests
  • Incomplete license checks lead to compliance risks
  • Use lockfiles or BOMs for deterministic builds
  • Integrate automated security checks into CI
  • Plan regular, staged upgrades with tests

I/O & resources

  • Dependency manifests (e.g. package.json, pom.xml, build.gradle)
  • Access to artifact registries and repositories
  • Organizational policies and compliance requirements
  • Versioned dependency lists and lockfiles
  • Reports on security and license status
  • Recommended upgrade and remediation tasks

Description

Dependency management is a structured method for governing, versioning and controlling software dependencies across projects and modules. It defines policies, roles, processes and toolchains for resolving transitive dependencies, license and security scanning, and reproducible builds. The goal is stable integrations, reduced risk and predictable releases.

✔

  • Reproducible builds and fewer integration errors
  • Faster identification and remediation of security issues
  • Improved traceability of dependency changes

✖

  • Requires initial organizational and tooling effort
  • Can increase administrative effort with many modules
  • Not all issues can be solved technically alone (process needed)

  • Dependency freshness

    Share of dependencies updated within a defined time window.

  • Number of known vulnerabilities

    Open CVEs in used libraries, weighted by severity.

  • Build reproducibility

    Share of builds that produce deterministic identical artifacts.

Maven multi-module project

Using a central BOM (bill of materials) to align versions across modules.

Monorepo with lockfiles

Using lockfiles and CI validation to ensure reproducible builds in a monorepo.

Automated dependency updates

Integration of Dependabot/automation to regularly check and create PRs for updates.

1

Inventory existing dependencies and toolchain

2

Define policies for versioning, pinning and updates

3

Introduce lockfiles, BOMs or central manifests

4

Configure automated scans and PR generation

5

Extend CI/CD pipelines and establish monitoring

⚠️ Technical debt & bottlenecks

  • Outdated dependencies without migration plan
  • Missing automation for security scans
  • Incompatible versions across multiple modules
transitive-updateslicense-compatibilitybuild-time
  • Forcing a central version without regard to compatibility
  • Deploying libraries without license checks
  • Disabling security scans to save build time
  • Underestimating the impact of transitive updates
  • Policies so strict that rapid security fixes are blocked
  • Loss of reproducibility due to dynamic versions
Fundamentals of build systems and package managementKnowledge of license and security aspectsExperience with CI/CD integration and automation
Build reproducibilitySecurity and license complianceModular responsibility boundaries and release frequency
  • • Availability of appropriate tooling and registry access
  • • Organizational policies on version and release strategies
  • • Compatibility with existing CI/CD processes