Maven update dependencies in POM

Try the maven-versions-plugin, in particular, the versions:use-latest-versions goal.

I prefer using mvn versions:display-dependency-updates; this generates a report of which dependencies can be upgraded, but lets you modify the POMs yourself. There's also a display-plugin-updates command for plugins.

you can use dependencyManagement in your parent pom:

<dependencyManagement>
      <dependencies>
          <dependency>
              <groupId>commons-lang</groupId>
              <artifactId>commons-lang</artifactId>
              <version>2.4</version>
          </dependency>
      </dependencies>
</dependencyManagement>

this way, you need to change the version only once in the parent POM