diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 62ed5d1..1d71bc2 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@
   <property name="maven-javadoc-jar" value="${release.dir}/${artifactId}-${version}-javadoc.jar" />
   <property name="maven-sources-jar" value="${release.dir}/${artifactId}-${version}-sources.jar" />
 
+  <property environment="env"/>
+
   <property name="dependency-check.home" value="${ivy.dir}/dependency-check-ant/"/>
 
   <property name="spotbugs.version" value="4.1.1" />
@@ -311,8 +313,9 @@
   </ivy:makepom>
 
   <!-- sign and deploy the main artifact -->
-  <artifact:mvn>
-    <arg value="org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-gpg-plugin:1.5:sign-and-deploy-file" />
+  <artifact:mvn mavenHome="${env.MVN_HOME}" fork="true" failonerror="true">
+  	<jvmarg value="-Dmaven.multiModuleProjectDirectory=false" />
+    <arg value="org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-gpg-plugin:1.6:sign-and-deploy-file" />
     <arg value="-Durl=${maven-repository-url}" />
     <arg value="-DrepositoryId=${maven-repository-id}" />
     <arg value="-DpomFile=pom.xml" />
@@ -321,8 +324,9 @@
   </artifact:mvn>
 
   <!-- sign and deploy the sources artifact -->
-  <artifact:mvn>
-    <arg value="org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-gpg-plugin:1.5:sign-and-deploy-file" />
+  <artifact:mvn mavenHome="${env.MVN_HOME}" fork="true" failonerror="true">
+  	<jvmarg value="-Dmaven.multiModuleProjectDirectory=false" />
+    <arg value="org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-gpg-plugin:1.6:sign-and-deploy-file" />
     <arg value="-Durl=${maven-repository-url}" />
     <arg value="-DrepositoryId=${maven-repository-id}" />
     <arg value="-DpomFile=pom.xml" />
@@ -332,8 +336,9 @@
   </artifact:mvn>
 
   <!-- sign and deploy the javadoc artifact -->
-  <artifact:mvn>
-    <arg value="org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-gpg-plugin:1.5:sign-and-deploy-file" />
+  <artifact:mvn mavenHome="${env.MVN_HOME}" fork="true" failonerror="true">
+  	<jvmarg value="-Dmaven.multiModuleProjectDirectory=false" />
+    <arg value="org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-gpg-plugin:1.6:sign-and-deploy-file" />
     <arg value="-Durl=${maven-repository-url}" />
     <arg value="-DrepositoryId=${maven-repository-id}" />
     <arg value="-DpomFile=pom.xml" />
@@ -362,10 +367,12 @@
       </dependency>
     </artifact:dependencies-->
 
-    <artifact:mvn>
-      <arg value="test"/>
+    <artifact:mvn mavenHome="${env.MVN_HOME}" fork="true" failonerror="true">
+      <jvmarg value="-Dmaven.multiModuleProjectDirectory=false" />
+      <arg value="package"/>
+      <arg value="-DskipTests"/>
       <arg value="-e"/>
-      <arg value="-o"/>
+      <!--arg value="-o"/-->
       <!-- run offline (-o): must not download dependencies as this is
            done from http://repo1.maven.org/ hardwired in
            maven-ant-tasks-2.1.3.jar, see NUTCH-2722.
diff --git a/ivy/mvn.template b/ivy/mvn.template
index 6d22c84..edfb550 100644
--- a/ivy/mvn.template
+++ b/ivy/mvn.template
@@ -19,6 +19,11 @@
     xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
 
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+  <parent>
+    <groupId>org.apache</groupId>
+    <artifactId>apache</artifactId>
+    <version>23</version>
+  </parent>
   <groupId>${ivy.pom.groupId}</groupId>
   <artifactId>${ivy.pom.artifactId}</artifactId>
   <packaging>${ivy.pom.packaging}</packaging>
@@ -46,6 +51,10 @@
       <name>MireDot Releases</name>
       <url>http://nexus.qmino.com/content/repositories/miredot</url>
     </pluginRepository>
+    <pluginRepository> 
+      <id>maven2</id> 
+      <url>https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/</url> 
+    </pluginRepository> 
   </pluginRepositories>
 
   <developers>
@@ -119,6 +128,7 @@
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
+          <version>3.8.1</version>
           <configuration>
             <source>1.8</source>
             <target>1.8</target>
@@ -130,7 +140,7 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>com.qmino</groupId>
         <artifactId>miredot-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.0.1</version>
+        <version>2.4.0</version>
         <executions>
           <execution>
             <goals>