Because versions plugin works with this format perfectly. You just type something like `mvn versions:display-property-updates` and get the full list of all upda

Because versions plugin works with this format perfectly. You just type something like `mvn versions:display-property-updates` and get the full list of all updated dependencies and plugins. I can't remember why exactly it doesn't work this way with inline version strings, but I remember that there was a reason I started to use this approach (and I generally prefer not to introduce unnecessary complexity). Another reason is uniformity. You'll inevitably have some group of dependencies with identical version, so it certainly makes sense to move that info to the property. And then you'll have your versions information spread around. Not very nice.