diff --git a/maven-embedder/src/test/projects/optional-dep/pom.xml b/maven-embedder/src/test/projects/optional-dep/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..47bb16ef35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-embedder/src/test/projects/optional-dep/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+  <groupId>optionaldependency</groupId>
+  <artifactId>p01</artifactId>
+  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+ 
+  <!--
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>junit</groupId>
+      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
+      <version>3.8.1</version>
+      <optional>false</optional>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+  -->
+ 
+</project>