How do dependency management processes differ at various stages of their lifecycle?

Dependency management goes through several stages of the lifecycle, and the processes differ at each stage:

1. Development — at this stage, dependencies are added to the project, usually through package managers (e.g., NuGet for C#). It is important to choose versions compatible with the project and to lock them in configuration files (e.g., packages.config or *.csproj).

2. Build — dependencies are resolved and loaded, the compiler and linker include the necessary libraries. This stage involves checking the availability of all required packages and their correct versions.

3. Testing — dependencies are used to run tests, sometimes mock objects or test libraries are connected, which are also dependencies.

4. Deployment — dependencies must be included in the final artifact or available in the runtime environment. It is crucial that all necessary libraries are accessible; otherwise, the application will not start.

5. Update and maintenance — managing dependency versions, updating to fix bugs or vulnerabilities, checking compatibility with new code.

Thus, at different stages of the lifecycle, the goal and method of dependency management change: from selecting and locking versions to ensuring their availability and updating.