Dependency management is one of the features of Maven that is best known to users and is one of the areas where Maven excels. There is not much difficulty in managing dependencies for a single a project, but when you start getting into dealing with multi-module projects and applications that consist of tens or hundreds of modules this is where Maven can help you a great deal in maintaining a high degree of control and stability.

This article finally pins down the elusive Maven 2 POM, version 4.0, the single largest configuration file you are likely ever to love. Readers will learn that the successful Maven 2 build system derives much of its power and portability from the POM, and that—despite what you may have heard—it is really not so bad after all.