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>
    <jaxbri.version>2.1.7</jaxbri.version>
    <jaxws.tools.version>2.1.3</jaxws.tools.version>
    <jaxws.rt.version>2.1.3</jaxws...