Documentation is your friend
If you are a good developer, you know the value of documentation. Anything you write should not be cryptic or understood only by you. Let it be a Java, .NET, C++, or a Maven project, the documentation is your friend. A code with a good documentation is extremely readable. If any configuration you add into an application POM file is not self-descriptive, make sure that you add at least a single line comment to explain what it does.
Here are some good examples from the Apache Axis2 project:
<profile>
<id>java16</id>
<activation>
<jdk>1.6</jdk>
</activation>
<!-- JDK 1.6 build still use JAX-WS 2.1 because integratingJava endorsed mechanism with Maven is bit of complex--> <properties> <jaxb.api.version>2.1</jaxb.api.version> ...
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