Can you explain what is meant by a dependency management tool in a project?

A dependency management tool in a project is a program or system that helps automatically download, update, and organize external libraries and components necessary for the application's operation. In Java, such tools include Maven or Gradle. They allow describing dependencies in a special file (pom.xml for Maven, build.gradle for Gradle), after which the tool automatically downloads the required library versions, considers their dependencies, and simplifies project building.

Example with Gradle:

dependencies {
    implementation 'org.springframework:spring-core:5.3.10'
    testImplementation 'junit:junit:4.13.2'
}

This relieves the developer from manually searching for and connecting libraries, and also helps keep the project up to date.