So we are writing medium size software,and it has two parts frontend is written in angularJS and backend in laravel. Laravel provides api and nothing else.
Now very often one of many dependencies gets updated.
Now shall we take the bite and upgrade or do not disturb the system since it is working fine?
6
Bad practice generally, unless you want to be on the bleeding edge and have to manage bugs you can’t control.
However, a policy of continuous upgrading is a good practice, you manage the pain of upgrading if you do it regularly as changes should not be that large. One day you will have to upgrade (eg to fix a security vulnerability) and if you’re many versions behind the upgrade could be a major undertaking.
So really its a management exercise in trading off upgrades against maintenance churn. Do it regularly, but not simply because a new version has been released.
2
I would generally recommend keeping up to date.
If you don’t, at some stage you will have to upgrade your library (have you found a bug?), and that may cascade through your project and your dependencies, as the new library requires further updates.
If you schedule regular minor upgrades, then you can manage that without having an avalanche of upgrades when your hand is forced. Note that I’m suggesting that you schedule this – perhaps you timebox it, and if an upgrade requires more work, at least you can back off and allocate more time to it. I am (of course) assuming you have a regression test set such that you can determine that your functionality remains the same!