Third-Party Dependency Verification

This question asks if you check that all the external code libraries and tools your software depends on are still being maintained and supported whenever you make major changes. It's like checking that all the parts in your car are still being manufactured before doing major repairs - you don't want to depend on abandoned or obsolete components.

Unsupported dependencies are ticking time bombs that can cripple your product when vulnerabilities are discovered but no fixes are coming. This verification prevents future crises where you must emergency-rewrite code, protects against supply chain attacks, and shows customers you're managing technical debt responsibly. Ignoring this creates massive technical debt that eventually forces expensive, risky rewrites.

Many teams only check dependencies when something breaks, not proactively during changes. Another mistake is checking if libraries work technically but not whether they're still actively maintained, leading to gradual accumulation of abandoned dependencies that become security liabilities.