diff --git a/pmd-exclude.properties b/pmd-exclude.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..94fe9ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pmd-exclude.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+################################################################################
+#
+#    Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+#    contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+#    this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+#    The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+#    (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+#    the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+#    Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+#    distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+#    WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+#    See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+#    limitations under the License.
+#
+################################################################################
+org.apache.sling.commons.content.processing.ContentProcessor=UnnecessaryModifier
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index d57e0f1..71046ad 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@
         <version>3.14.0</version>
         <configuration>
           <targetJdk>${sling.java.version}</targetJdk>
+          <excludeFromFailureFile>pmd-exclude.properties</excludeFromFailureFile>
         </configuration>
         <executions>
           <execution>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/commons/content/processing/ContentProcessor.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/commons/content/processing/ContentProcessor.java
index ea9a949..2e1b5b9 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/commons/content/processing/ContentProcessor.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/sling/commons/content/processing/ContentProcessor.java
@@ -42,6 +42,6 @@
      * @param report     the report to which the findings of the processing operation are added
      * @return {@link java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture} for signaling completion
      */
-    @NotNull CompletableFuture<Void> process(@NotNull final InputStream input, @NotNull final OutputStream output, @Nullable final Map<String, Object> parameters, @NotNull final Map<String, Object> report);
+    public abstract @NotNull CompletableFuture<Void> process(@NotNull final InputStream input, @NotNull final OutputStream output, @Nullable final Map<String, Object> parameters, @NotNull final Map<String, Object> report);
 
 }