Where should plugin and dependency versions be configured for a MuleSoft project?

• A. Parent POM
• B. BOM (Bill of Materials)
• C. Child POM
• D. Settings.xml

Answer: (B)

Centralized version management is achieved with a Bill of Materials. A BOM defines the versions of a set of dependencies (and often related plugins) in one place. By importing the BOM into your Maven project (dependencyManagement), all modules can omit explicit versions for those artifacts and rely on the versions from the BOM. This keeps dependencies and plugins aligned across modules, prevents version drift, and makes upgrades simple—update the BOM, rebuild, and everyone uses the new versions. In MuleSoft projects, this is the standard approach to coordinate plugin and dependency versions across the project. Other locations are less suitable: a child POM would either inherit or override values without a single source of truth, and settings.xml is intended for local user configurations rather than cross-project version management.