Should I migrate from Ant to Maven?

Question

I am working on a fairly large project (with a number of modules, a bunch of external libraries etc.) and we are now considering switching from Ant to Maven. I understand the differences between the two, but I am not convinced that it is really worth spending time converting the project layout, setting up all the dependencies, teaching developers and configuration managers doing things "the new way" etc.

There are a lot of resources on the web describing how to migrate from Ant to Maven, but I haven't found that many that say why :-)

Answer 1

Before changing your build system, ask yourself (and the group) why you're changing? If you're changing just because Maven is the "new thing", don't. If you actually see a technical reason to migrate, do it.

In general, unless there's a major compelling reason to do so (new capabilities or much simpler management), I'd say stay with what you have for the current project, but consider Maven for future projects.