If you need a version controlled specification of a set of app to be deployed to defined environments, a separate POM is the way to go.

In the POM file you will list the artifacts with their versions and the environments you want to deploy to.

The following shows a configuration where the different target environments are configured with the POM file. This makes the different environments immediately accessible to users of the project.

Unfortunately this configuration lacks flexibility in case you administrate more than one project. In this case you may want to check the alternative configuration we show at the end of this tutorial.