Looking for some best practices on handling a major dependency upgrades within a project, assuming the use of a dependency management tool(e.g., Maven 2). Specifically, I'm interested in: How get an inherited application up-to-date(e.g., Spring 1.2.x to 2.5.x) What practices can be put into place to after such an overhaul to keep applications somewhat up-to-date Your own experiences or any articles/papers you've come across/found to be useful are welcome.