"What I want in a build tool is [snip] what was described over a decade ago by Peter Miller: never [have to] run a clean build, and reliably build any sub-target you like. These are properties, not features, and you don't get properties by accumulating more code."
This is the conclusion from Lex Spoon's http://blog.lexspoon.org/2012/12/recursive-maven-considered-harmful.html