Part X: Maven Plugins

Plugins are artifacts that provide Goals to Maven. They come in three flavors: plugins that provide Build goals, plugins that provide Report goals and plugins that provide both types of Goals. You define the plugins you want to use by providing their groupId and artifactId. If the plugin supports it, you can configure how the plugin works. When you add a plugin to your project you also need define which Goals from that plugin you want to run.

Generally you want to make use of a plugin because it provides functionality you want to make use of. Plugin functionality is provided as a Goal.