maven dependency without version

Solution 1:

Ok, I think I'm gonna answer it myself. Of course I took a look at dependency:tree, but all the dependencies that I mentioned were first-level members of the tree. What I failed to notice right away, is that dependencyManagement is not present in the parent, but it is however present in the submodules, and what is more interesting it contains:

        <dependency>
            <groupId>io.spring.platform</groupId>
            <artifactId>platform-bom</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.2.RELEASE</version>
            <type>pom</type>
            <scope>import</scope>
        </dependency>

I've never used Spring IO Platform before, so this is a totally new concept for me. As it turns out the platform includes quite a few preconfigured dependencies: http://docs.spring.io/platform/docs/current/reference/htmlsingle/#appendix-dependency-versions

Solution 2:

It is impossible for maven to work without defining versions of the artifacts. They should be defined somewhere in dependencyManagement tag either in the submodule or parent. Please check your pom hierarchy. Use mvn help:effective-pom in the submodule directory of the project. Also you can use mvn dependency:tree in order to find out which artifacts - along with full artifact information including version numbers - are resolved in the result of dependency management.