In upgrading an application, what does ‘dependency’ mean?
When one application component uses another component, the first component is said to be dependant on the second. There are different types of usage that require different ways to identify such dependencies. Usage can appear in the form of access to a class member, invocation of a method, declaration of a variable with a particular type or the inclusion of an embedded control. The knowledge about the dependencies between components and projects is essential for the upgrade engineer, since this information will be used in conjunction with other key considerations -such as strategic priorities, business value and available resources- to focus the upgrade efforts and maximize the results obtained.