This Article is my scribble pad for maven. Not may details are added

Maven -> build tool in the Java world

plugins -> All task are implemented by plugins.

surefire plugin -> core plugins of the Maven build tool

• This plugin has only one goal, test

• mvn test -> By default, surefire automatically includes all test classes whose name starts with Test, or ends with Test, Tests or TestCase.

Overview of profile

 <profile>
            <id>regression</id>
            <b>
                <!-- Source directory configuration -->
                <!--<sourceDirectory>src</sourceDirectory>-->
                <plugins>
                    <!-- Following plugin executes the testng tests -->
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>2.20</version>
                        <configuration>
                            <!-- Suite testng xml file to consider for test execution -->
                            <suiteXmlFiles>
                                <suiteXmlFile>regression-suite.xml</suiteXmlFile>
                            </suiteXmlFiles>
                            <properties>
                                <property>
                                    <name>testnames</name>
                                    <!--suppress UnresolvedMavenProperty -->
                                    <value>${tests}</value>
                                </property>

                            </properties>

                            <forkMode>never</forkMode>

                        </configuration>
                    </plugin>
                    <!-- Compiler plugin configures the java version to be usedfor compiling
                        the code -->
                    <plugin>
                        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                        <version>3.5</version>
                        <configuration>
                            <source>1.8</source>
                            <target>1.8</target>
                        </configuration>

                    </plugin>


                </plugins>

            </b>
        </profile>

Using Suite XML Files

<plugins>
    [...]
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <suiteXmlFiles>
            <suiteXmlFile>testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
          </suiteXmlFiles>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    [...]
</plugins>

Specifying Test Parameters

<plugins>
    [...]
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <systemPropertyVariables>
            <propertyName>firefox</propertyName>
          </systemPropertyVariables>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    [...]
</plugins>

Using Groups

TestNG allows you to group your tests. You can then execute one or more specific groups. To do this with Surefire, use the groups parameter, for example:

<plugins>
    [...]
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <groups>functest,perftest</groups>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    [...]
</plugins>

Running Tests in Parallel

<plugins>
    [...]
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>3.1.2</version>
        <configuration>
          <parallel>methods</parallel>
          <threadCount>10</threadCount>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    [...]
</plugins>