Maven 4: Streamlining Enterprise Java Development with Jakarta EE, Spring Boot and Quarkus

After two decades as Java's dominant build tool (no offense to Gradle), Maven is undergoing its most significant evolution. While the official Maven documentation outlines the technical changes in Maven 4, this blog post focuses specifically on what these changes mean for enterprise developers working with Jakarta EE, Spring Boot and Quarkus.

Runtime Requirements: Java 17 for Maven, Not Your Code

The first thing to know about Maven 4 is that it requires Java 17 or above to run. This applies to your build environment (CI/CD servers, developer machines), but critically, it doesn't force your projects to use Java 17 or newer versions. You can still compile and target older Java versions using Maven Toolchains, just as before.

For enterprise teams with strict JDK requirements or legacy applications, this means updating your build infrastructure without changing your application code or deployment targets. This separation of build-time and runtime Java versions provides a smooth transition path that maintains backward compatibility.

The Evolution Of The POM

The main change in Maven 4 is the separation of build and consumer Project Object Models (POMs). When you publish a library to Maven Central with Maven 4, only a streamlined consumer POM containing essential dependency information will be deployed. Your complex build configuration with plugins, profiles and other build-specific details stays private. For library maintainers supporting Jakarta EE, Spring Boot or Quarkus applications, this means:

1. Cleaner dependency information for downstream application developers
2. Less "build noise" propagating through the dependency chain
3. Greater freedom to evolve build processes without affecting consumers

For the Spring Boot ecosystem, which relies heavily on carefully curated dependency graphs, this cleaner separation prevents build-time concerns from leaking into runtime concerns. Quarkus, with its focus on build-time optimization, similarly benefits from this clearer distinction.

Practical BOM Management for Framework Integration

Bills of Materials (BOMs) are the foundation of version management in Spring Boot and Quarkus. Maven 4 elevates BOMs from a convention to a first-class citizen with the dedicated BOM packaging type.

A significant practical improvement is the ability to exclude transitive dependencies within a BOM, addressing a common pain point when integrating multiple frameworks. For example, when combining Quarkus with Spring Boot libraries, conflicting transitive dependencies can now be managed more surgically.

Consider this practical scenario: when building a Jakarta EE application that incorporates Spring Data repositories alongside Jakarta Persistence, you may often face transitive dependency conflicts. Maven 4's transitive exclusion capability within BOMs enables framework maintainers to create more compatible integration points between these ecosystems.

Multi-Project Builds

Enterprise applications rarely exist in isolation. Maven 4's renaming of "modules" to "subprojects" provides clearer mental models for organizing complex applications.

For microservice applications built with Spring Boot or Quarkus, the automatic versioning feature eliminates redundant version declarations across dozens or even hundreds of services. This seemingly simple change has profound effects on release automation:

1. Simplified CI/CD pipeline configuration using ${revision} variables
2. Reduced merge conflicts during version bumps
3. Faster onboarding for new team members with less boilerplate

The smarter reactor in Maven 4 directly addresses a frustration familiar to any developer who has worked on large Jakarta EE applications—properly resuming failed builds. Now, when a build fails in a deep dependency chain, the -r flag correctly rebuilds only what's needed rather than restarting the entire process.

Performance Enhancements for Real Development Workflows

Reducing build time directly impacts developer productivity, which is particularly important for Jakarta EE applications that traditionally have longer build cycles. The improvements here are practical and measurable:

1. Maven Shell (mvnsh) keeps a Maven process running, eliminating startup overhead for consecutive commands
2. The deployAtEnd=true default setting prevents partial deployments, reducing repository clutter and errors
3. More intelligent build resumption preserves successfully built artifacts

For Quarkus, which emphasizes developer productivity and rapid feedback loops, the Maven Shell complements the existing dev mode by making build commands more responsive. Spring Boot developers benefit similarly, especially in projects with many submodules. Payara Dev Mode plugin users will also have much faster build turnarounds with their Jakarta EE projects. 

Framework-Specific Optimization Opportunities

Jakarta EE

Jakarta EE applications often have complex, layered architectures. Maven 4's new directory reference properties like ${project.rootDirectory} provide standardized ways to reference configuration files across the application structure. This is particularly useful for:

• Consistent security configuration across multiple deployment modules
• Centralized validation rules for multi-tiered applications
• Unified code quality settings like checkstyle rules

Spring Boot

Spring Boot's opinionated approach to dependency management becomes even more powerful with Maven 4. The formalized BOM packaging enables Spring Boot maintainers to:

• Create more nuanced starter dependencies with finer-grained exclusions
• Simplify the transition between Spring Boot versions
• Enable easier customization of Spring Boot's auto-configuration

Quarkus

Quarkus's emphasis on build-time optimization and developer productivity aligns perfectly with Maven 4's performance enhancements:

• Faster builds complement Quarkus's live coding features
• Improved dependency management aids in creating optimized native images
• The cleaner separation of build and consumer concerns helps maintain Quarkus's lean runtime footprint

Enterprise Migration Strategy to Maven 4

While Maven 4 offers compelling benefits, enterprise teams need a practical approach to migration:

1. Start by testing existing builds with Maven 3.9.x, which produces helpful deprecation warnings
2. Modernize any custom Maven plugins by converting from legacy Plexus annotations to standard JSR-330 dependency injection annotations (@Named, @Inject)
3. Adopt the bom packaging type for your internal dependency management
4. Gradually migrate to version 4.1.0 POMs to take advantage of automatic versioning

Maven 4: Real-World Impact Summary

Impact ratings: ★ (Limited) to ★★★★★ (Transformative)

Conclusions: How Maven 4 Can Support Java Ecosystems

Maven 4 represents a step toward a more modular, maintainable Java ecosystem. For enterprise teams building with Jakarta EE, Spring Boot or Quarkus, these improvements address real pain points rather than theoretical concerns.

The cleaner separation of build and consumption concerns, improved dependency management, and performance enhancements all contribute to more maintainable codebases and more productive development teams. While the migration requires thoughtful planning, the long-term benefits for complex enterprise applications make Maven 4 a significant advancement for the Java ecosystem. Get started with Jakarta EE today with the Payara Maven dev mode plugin to experience stratospheric developer productivity.