diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a2fb5b5ab2..fd23bc9dce 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -571,6 +571,38 @@
             <skipStyleCheck>false</skipStyleCheck>
             <skipLicenseCheck>false</skipLicenseCheck>
          </properties>
+         <build>
+            <plugins>
+               <plugin>
+                  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+                  <artifactId>maven-enforcer-plugin</artifactId>
+                  <version>1.4</version>
+                  <executions>
+                     <execution>
+                        <id>enforce-java</id>
+                        <goals>
+                           <goal>enforce</goal>
+                        </goals>
+                        <configuration>
+                           <rules>
+                              <!-- we need java8 when building the release -->
+                              <requireJavaVersion>
+                                 <version>1.8.0</version>
+                              </requireJavaVersion>
+                           </rules>
+                        </configuration>
+                     </execution>
+                  </executions>
+               </plugin>
+               <plugin>
+                  <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+                  <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
+                  <configuration>
+                     <additionalparam>-Xdoclint:none</additionalparam>
+                  </configuration>
+               </plugin>
+            </plugins>
+         </build>
       </profile>
       <profile>
          <!-- tests is the profile we use to run the entire testsuite