diff --git a/hbase-annotations/pom.xml b/hbase-annotations/pom.xml
index 6ad3c125753..8e73769422e 100644
--- a/hbase-annotations/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-annotations/pom.xml
@@ -36,18 +36,9 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>checkstyle</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>check</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
diff --git a/hbase-archetypes/pom.xml b/hbase-archetypes/pom.xml
index bc96c272f72..8f755f04f1b 100644
--- a/hbase-archetypes/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-archetypes/pom.xml
@@ -81,18 +81,9 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>checkstyle</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>check</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
diff --git a/hbase-build-support/hbase-error-prone/pom.xml b/hbase-build-support/hbase-error-prone/pom.xml
index 00dad960588..b9e5e1e9b5a 100644
--- a/hbase-build-support/hbase-error-prone/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-build-support/hbase-error-prone/pom.xml
@@ -71,18 +71,9 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>checkstyle</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>check</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
diff --git a/hbase-external-blockcache/pom.xml b/hbase-external-blockcache/pom.xml
index e9d4e60497b..4de7f341a4f 100644
--- a/hbase-external-blockcache/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-external-blockcache/pom.xml
@@ -98,18 +98,9 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>checkstyle</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>check</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
     <pluginManagement>
diff --git a/hbase-metrics-api/pom.xml b/hbase-metrics-api/pom.xml
index 0327204d17a..3389f7e9f27 100644
--- a/hbase-metrics-api/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-metrics-api/pom.xml
@@ -71,18 +71,9 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>checkstyle</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>check</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
diff --git a/hbase-metrics/pom.xml b/hbase-metrics/pom.xml
index 39b8cc81b70..3abca8300ab 100644
--- a/hbase-metrics/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-metrics/pom.xml
@@ -71,18 +71,9 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>checkstyle</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>check</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
diff --git a/hbase-protocol-shaded/pom.xml b/hbase-protocol-shaded/pom.xml
index 14151b0e805..c3b3916892f 100644
--- a/hbase-protocol-shaded/pom.xml
+++ b/hbase-protocol-shaded/pom.xml
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-source-plugin</artifactId>
-		  </plugin> 
+		  </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <!--Make it so assembly:single does nothing in here-->
         <artifactId>maven-assembly-plugin</artifactId>
@@ -108,30 +108,30 @@
            we run mvn install. There is probably a better way of avoiding the
            double interpolation but this is it for now.
         -->
-      <plugin> 
-        <groupId>com.google.code.maven-replacer-plugin</groupId> 
-        <artifactId>replacer</artifactId> 
-        <version>1.5.3</version> 
-        <executions> 
-          <execution> 
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>com.google.code.maven-replacer-plugin</groupId>
+        <artifactId>replacer</artifactId>
+        <version>1.5.3</version>
+        <executions>
+          <execution>
             <phase>generate-sources</phase>
-            <goals> 
+            <goals>
               <goal>replace</goal>
-            </goals> 
-          </execution> 
-        </executions> 
-        <configuration> 
-          <basedir>${basedir}/target/generated-sources/</basedir>  
-            <includes>  
-                <include>**/*.java</include>  
-            </includes>  
+            </goals>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <basedir>${basedir}/target/generated-sources/</basedir>
+            <includes>
+                <include>**/*.java</include>
+            </includes>
             <replacements>
               <replacement>
-                <token>([^\.])com.google.protobuf</token> 
+                <token>([^\.])com.google.protobuf</token>
                 <value>$1org.apache.hbase.thirdparty.com.google.protobuf</value>
               </replacement>
             </replacements>
-        </configuration> 
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
@@ -181,18 +181,9 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <executions>
-          <execution>
-            <id>checkstyle</id>
-            <phase>validate</phase>
-            <goals>
-              <goal>check</goal>
-            </goals>
-            <configuration>
-              <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
-            </configuration>
-          </execution>
-        </executions>
+        <configuration>
+          <failOnViolation>true</failOnViolation>
+        </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>
     <pluginManagement>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a06cad741ee..4329d5a6d22 100755
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -878,6 +878,9 @@
           </configuration>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>
+          <!-- Approach followed here is roughly the same as mentioned here:
+          https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-checkstyle-plugin/examples/multi-module-config.html
+          -->
           <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
           <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>${maven.checkstyle.version}</version>
@@ -1083,23 +1086,6 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <dependencies>
-          <dependency>
-            <groupId>org.apache.hbase</groupId>
-            <artifactId>hbase-checkstyle</artifactId>
-            <version>${project.version}</version>
-          </dependency>
-          <dependency>
-            <groupId>com.puppycrawl.tools</groupId>
-            <artifactId>checkstyle</artifactId>
-            <version>${checkstyle.version}</version>
-          </dependency>
-        </dependencies>
-        <configuration>
-          <configLocation>hbase/checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
-          <suppressionsLocation>hbase/checkstyle-suppressions.xml</suppressionsLocation>
-          <includeTestSourceDirectory>true</includeTestSourceDirectory>
-        </configuration>
       </plugin>
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
@@ -1452,7 +1438,7 @@
         Default is the build start timestamp. Up on jenkins pass in the jenkins build id by setting
         this parameter by invoking mvn with -Dbuild.id=$BUILD_ID-->
     <build.id>${maven.build.timestamp}</build.id>
-    </properties>
+  </properties>
   <!-- Sorted by groups of dependencies then groupId and artifactId -->
   <dependencyManagement>
     <dependencies>
@@ -3558,12 +3544,8 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-checkstyle-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>${maven.checkstyle.version}</version>
         <configuration>
           <excludes>target/**</excludes>
-          <configLocation>hbase/checkstyle.xml</configLocation>
-          <suppressionsLocation>hbase/checkstyle-suppressions.xml</suppressionsLocation>
-          <includeTestSourceDirectory>true</includeTestSourceDirectory>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>