Worked on release readiness and dependency management for the confluentinc/kafka-connect-storage-common repository, focusing on delivering stable and auditable release processes. Addressed updates to the parquet-avro dependency and managed Maven release plugin versions to support the v10.0.28 release, ensuring compatibility with downstream consumers. Used Java and Maven to streamline the release workflow, including bumping development iteration versions to facilitate future releases. The work emphasized process improvements and traceability by capturing explicit commits related to dependency and plugin changes. No major bugs were addressed, as the primary focus was on enhancing release management and reducing risk for subsequent development cycles.