Chapter 1, Apache Maven Quick Start, focuses on building a basic foundation around Maven to get started. It starts by explaining the basic steps to install and configure Maven on Ubuntu, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. The latter part of the chapter covers some of the common useful Maven tips and tricks.

Chapter 2, Understanding the Project Object Model (POM), focuses on the Maven Project Object Model (POM) and how to adhere to the industry-wide accepted best practices to avoid maintenance nightmares. The key elements of a POM file, POM hierarchy and inheritance, managing dependencies, and related topics are covered here.

Chapter 3, Maven Archetypes, focuses on how Maven archetypes provide a way of reducing repetitive work in building Maven projects. There are thousands of archetypes out there that are available publicly to help you build different types of projects. This chapter covers a commonly used set of archetypes.

Chapter 4, Maven Plugins, covers some of the most commonly used Maven plugins and then explains how plugins are discovered and executed. Maven only provides a build framework, while the Maven plugins perform the actual tasks. Maven has a large, rich set of plugins, and the chances are very small that you will have to write your own custom plugin.

Chapter 5, Build Lifecycles, explains how the three standard lifecycles work and how we can customize them. Later in the chapter, we discuss how to develop our own lifecycle extensions.

Chapter 6, Maven Assemblies, covers real-world examples of how to use the Maven assembly plugin in detail, and finally concludes with an end-to-end sample Maven project.

Chapter 7, Best Practices, looks at and highlights some of the best practices to be followed in a large-scale development project with Maven. It is always recommended to follow the best practices since it will drastically improve developer productivity and reduce any maintenance nightmares.