In the parent POM, the main difference between the <dependencies> and <dependencyManagement> is this:
- Artifacts specified in the
<dependencies>section, will ALWAYS be included as a dependency of the child module(s) - Artifacts specified in the
<dependencyManagement>section, will ONLY be included in the child module if they were also specified in the<dependencies>section of the child module itself
Example
<!-- ParentProj pom -->
<project>
<dependencyManagement>
<dependencies>
<dependency> <!-- not much benefit defining alpha here, as we only use in 1 child, so optional -->
<groupId>alpha</groupId>
<artifactId>alpha</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>zebra</groupId>
<artifactId>zebra</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>charlie</groupId> <!-- not much benefit defining charlie here, so optional -->
<artifactId>charlie</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
<type>war</type>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency> <!-- defining betaShared here makes a lot of sense -->
<groupId>betaShared</groupId>
<artifactId>betaShared</artifactId>
<version>1.0</version>
<type>bar</type>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>
</project>
<!-- Child Proj1 pom -->
<project>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>alpha</groupId>
<artifactId>alpha</artifactId> <!-- jar type IS DEFAULT, so no need to specify in child projects -->
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>betaShared</groupId>
<artifactId>betaShared</artifactId>
<type>bar</type> <!-- This is not a jar dependency, so we must specify type. -->
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>
<!-- Child Proj2 -->
<project>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>charlie</groupId>
<artifactId>charlie</artifactId>
<type>war</type> <!-- This is not a jar dependency, so we must specify type. -->
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>betaShared</groupId>
<artifactId>betaShared</artifactId>
<type>bar</type> <!-- This is not a jar dependency, so we must specify type. -->
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</project>