Skipping Tests
To skip running the tests for a particular project, set the skipTests property to true.
<project>
[...]
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.5.2</version>
<configuration>
<skipTests>true</skipTests>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
[...]
</project>
You can also skip the tests via the command line by executing the following command:
mvn install -DskipTests
If you absolutely must, you can also use the maven.test.skip property to skip compiling the tests. maven.test.skip is honored by Surefire, Failsafe and the Compiler Plugin.
mvn install -Dmaven.test.skip=true
Skipping by Default
If you want to skip tests by default but want the ability to re-enable tests from the command line, you need to go via a properties section in the pom:
<project>
[...]
<properties>
<skipTests>true</skipTests>
</properties>
[...]
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.5.2</version>
<configuration>
<skipTests>${skipTests}</skipTests>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
[...]
</project>
This will allow you to run with all tests disabled by default and to run them with this command:
mvn install -DskipTests=false
The same can be done with the skip parameter and other boolean properties of the plugin.