diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest.java b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest.java
index 40892942ec..cddf68092f 100644
--- a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest.java
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/it/MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest.java
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ public class MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest
         throws Exception
     {
         File testDir = ResourceExtractor.simpleExtractResources( getClass(), "/mng-0449" );
+        testDir = new File( testDir, "lifecycle" );
 
         Verifier verifier = new Verifier( testDir.getAbsolutePath() );
         verifier.setAutoclean( false );
@@ -54,8 +55,7 @@ public class MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest
         verifier.deleteArtifacts( "org.apache.maven.its.mng0449" );
         verifier.getCliOptions().add( "--settings" );
         verifier.getCliOptions().add( "settings.xml" );
-        verifier.filterFile( "settings.xml", "settings.xml", "UTF-8", verifier.newDefaultFilterProperties() );
-        verifier.setLogFileName( "log-lifecycle.txt" );
+        verifier.filterFile( "../settings-template.xml", "settings.xml", "UTF-8", verifier.newDefaultFilterProperties() );
         verifier.executeGoal( "validate" );
         verifier.verifyErrorFreeLog();
         verifier.resetStreams();
@@ -67,12 +67,13 @@ public class MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest
 
     /**
      * Verify that versions for plugins are automatically resolved if not given in the POM by checking first LATEST and
-     * then RELEASE in the repo metadata when the plugin is invoked from the command line.
+     * then RELEASE in the repo metadata when the plugin is invoked directly from the command line.
      */
     public void testitCliInvocation()
         throws Exception
     {
         File testDir = ResourceExtractor.simpleExtractResources( getClass(), "/mng-0449" );
+        testDir = new File( testDir, "direct" );
 
         Verifier verifier = new Verifier( testDir.getAbsolutePath() );
         verifier.setAutoclean( false );
@@ -80,8 +81,7 @@ public class MavenITmng0449PluginVersionResolutionTest
         verifier.deleteArtifacts( "org.apache.maven.its.mng0449" );
         verifier.getCliOptions().add( "--settings" );
         verifier.getCliOptions().add( "settings.xml" );
-        verifier.filterFile( "settings.xml", "settings.xml", "UTF-8", verifier.newDefaultFilterProperties() );
-        verifier.setLogFileName( "log-cli.txt" );
+        verifier.filterFile( "../settings-template.xml", "settings.xml", "UTF-8", verifier.newDefaultFilterProperties() );
         verifier.executeGoal( "org.apache.maven.its.mng0449:maven-it-plugin-a:touch" );
         verifier.verifyErrorFreeLog();
         verifier.resetStreams();
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/direct/pom.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/direct/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a02a847fa1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/direct/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
+<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>org.apache.maven.its.mng0449</groupId>
+  <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
+  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <packaging>pom</packaging>
+
+  <name>Maven Integration Test :: MNG-449</name>
+  <description>
+    Verify that versions for plugins are automatically resolved if not given in the POM by checking first LATEST and
+    then RELEASE in the repo metadata.
+  </description>
+</project>
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/pom.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/lifecycle/pom.xml
similarity index 100%
rename from its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/pom.xml
rename to its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/lifecycle/pom.xml
diff --git a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/settings.xml b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/settings-template.xml
similarity index 95%
rename from its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/settings.xml
rename to its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/settings-template.xml
index 4ebb5a46d5..5aaf92bbc1 100644
--- a/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/settings.xml
+++ b/its/core-it-suite/src/test/resources/mng-0449/settings-template.xml
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ under the License.
       <repositories>
         <repository>
           <id>maven-core-it</id>
-          <url>@baseurl@/repo</url>
+          <url>@baseurl@/../repo</url>
           <releases>
             <checksumPolicy>ignore</checksumPolicy>
           </releases>
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ under the License.
       <pluginRepositories>
         <pluginRepository>
           <id>maven-core-it</id>
-          <url>@baseurl@/repo</url>
+          <url>@baseurl@/../repo</url>
           <releases>
             <checksumPolicy>ignore</checksumPolicy>
           </releases>