Surefire Plugin

How to skip all tests by default

http://www.nabble.com/Re%3A--m2--maven.test.skip%3Dtrue-on-by-default--p5878082.html

Put this in your settings.xml:

     <!-- skip tests by default, but allow override on command line -->
     <profile>
       <id>skiptests</id>
       <activation>
         <property>
           <name>!maven.test.skip</name>
         </property>
       </activation>
       <properties>
         <maven.test.skip>true</maven.test.skip>
       </properties>
     </profile>

This will set maven.test.skip to true, as long as you don't set it on
the command line. The nice part about this technique is that it DOES
allow you to override it on the command line if you want to.