INFO Technology RadarINFO Technology Radar

Dependency drift fitness function

This item was not updated in last three versions of the Radar. Should it have appeared in one of the more recent editions, there is a good chance it remains pertinent. However, if the item dates back further, its relevance may have diminished and our current evaluation could vary. Regrettably, our capacity to consistently revisit items from past Radar editions is limited.
Hold

Our vision remains as it was however this blip is no longer in trial because we think this blip is
too low-level to still be part of our radar.

Also since we have automated dependency updates in place for most teams this has become somewhat less relevant.

Trial

Dependency drift means that libraries that are used for a project are out-of-date. A fitness function is trying to put a value to a check that is run, so that would be in this case the drift that is determined for the used libraries. A simple approach would be to count the number of out-dated libraries.

The way to minimize dependency drift is to ensure that there is a (automated) process in place for updating dependencies. An automated approach can be setup using Renovate so that dependencies are checked and updated regularly.