Understanding the POM file

Maven, when executed, will search for a file named pom.xml in the current directory, and if found, it will be used for going through the life cycle phases. This file is usually referred to as a POM (Project Object Model), the file that defined our project.

The POM that we generate with Spring Initializr contains several tags that specify our project structure, dependencies, and goals for the different life cycle phases. Let's review them individually.