Minefield

This anti-pattern is the effect of potential bugs hidden inside a software, and more software if the main application uses large amount of vendors' libraries or framework. These problems includes underlying discovered and undiscovered bugs like security vulnerability, etc.

This problem is also known as dependency hell.

Consequences

• Program can have dependency nightmare.
• Program can produce uncontrollable security issues / bugs.

Symptoms

• When a project has a very large list of dependencies, especially from 3rd-party packages.

Causes

• When the project / developer believes in magic (abusively using 3rd-party packages).
• When the project / developer avoids shrinking the project.

Fixing Recipes

1. Review dependencies list and find all potentially removable modules. Have a detailed review the dependencies from various aspects like:
   1. Possible loss of vendor's module (causing dead-end anti-pattern)
   2. Security vulnerability potentials
   3. Replacability
   4. Learning curve
   5. etc.
2. Refactor by reducing the removable dependencies and use the in-house implementation to mitigate the dependency's minefield risks.
   1. Have the in-house implementation referenced to the original dependencies and tested.