diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 25056af9ba..fd30308b99 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@
       <skipConcurrentTests>true</skipConcurrentTests>
       <skipRestTests>true</skipRestTests>
       <skipActiveMQ5Tests>true</skipActiveMQ5Tests>
+      <skipExtraTests>true</skipExtraTests>
+
       <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
       <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
 
@@ -587,6 +589,7 @@
             <skipExtraTests>false</skipExtraTests>
             <skipStyleCheck>false</skipStyleCheck>
             <skipLicenseCheck>false</skipLicenseCheck>
+            <skipExtraTests>false</skipExtraTests>
          </properties>
       </profile>
       <profile>
@@ -620,7 +623,7 @@
             <skipJoramTests>false</skipJoramTests>
             <skipConcurrentTests>false</skipConcurrentTests>
             <skipRestTests>false</skipRestTests>
-            <skipExtraTests>false</skipExtraTests>
+            <skipExtraTests>true</skipExtraTests>
             <skipStyleCheck>false</skipStyleCheck>
             <skipLicenseCheck>false</skipLicenseCheck>
          </properties>
diff --git a/tests/pom.xml b/tests/pom.xml
index 503334de0a..b2dfa5caba 100644
--- a/tests/pom.xml
+++ b/tests/pom.xml
@@ -75,14 +75,13 @@
    </build>
 
    <profiles>
-      <profile>
+       <profile>
          <id>extra-tests</id>
          <modules>
+            <!-- to run extra-tests you must define -DskipExtraTests=false
+                 or run it with the tests profile -->
             <module>extra-tests</module>
          </modules>
-         <properties>
-            <skipExtraTests>false</skipExtraTests>
-         </properties>
       </profile>
       <profile>
          <id>activemq5-unit-tests</id>