properties file could be used the specify $ so it can be interpolated in
 <developerConnection/> but you couldn't use a properties file to specify the
 version of your project say. Anyway, food for thought to begin with.

 - elements that are critical for pom dissemination
 - those that are used locally by the user like <developerConnection/>

* User configuration

might want to separate between installation and activation, it might be nice to allow a user to activate/deactivate a plugin instead of having to uninstall and reinstall a plugin in particular cases. This would prevent having to reconfigure the plugin again. For example it might be nice to turn off LDAP authentication without having to uninstall the plugin.

These particular phases in a plugin’s lifecycle can probably be generalized to all plugins so could be something implemented in all plugins....