diff --git a/bagel/pom.xml b/bagel/pom.xml
index 6ab91c4b3b4c39b5a54f79ea9c85fd699572ffe9..b7a7ff0c6ee00be8270d631046d3712fdfe42ebe 100644
--- a/bagel/pom.xml
+++ b/bagel/pom.xml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
     <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>
     <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
     <version>0.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>
diff --git a/core/pom.xml b/core/pom.xml
index e0ce5b8b48cab984012099d39d897d8e3d42303d..befc461c5245d626081e3523e3836307ea0ae3be 100644
--- a/core/pom.xml
+++ b/core/pom.xml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
     <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>
     <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
     <version>0.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>
diff --git a/examples/pom.xml b/examples/pom.xml
index 84acee87bdc4435b2faa63ee429d4faf904783af..8053fe66b126d68b71ccbd4f6143d0b6f5de3086 100644
--- a/examples/pom.xml
+++ b/examples/pom.xml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
     <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>
     <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
     <version>0.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index ffd37907b10754cc989e5af003187c5b1868d12f..5dc836ec7bb5c68b8efec1458eba267297ec30c8 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -48,7 +48,9 @@
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
     <project.reporting.outputEncoding>UTF-8</project.reporting.outputEncoding>
 
+    <java.version>1.6</java.version>
     <scala.version>2.9.2</scala.version>
+    <mesos.version>0.9.0-incubating</mesos.version>
     <akka.version>2.0.3</akka.version>
     <spray.version>1.0-M2.1</spray.version>
     <slf4j.version>1.6.1</slf4j.version>
@@ -228,11 +230,10 @@
         <artifactId>scala-io-file_${scala.version}</artifactId>
         <version>0.4.1</version>
       </dependency>
-      <!-- In the root dir: mvn install:install-file -Dfile=core/lib/mesos-0.9.0.jar -DgroupId=org.apache.mesos -DartifactId=mesos -Dversion=0.9.0 -Dpackaging=jar -->
       <dependency>
         <groupId>org.apache.mesos</groupId>
         <artifactId>mesos</artifactId>
-        <version>0.9.0</version>
+        <version>${mesos.version}</version>
       </dependency>
 
       <dependency>
@@ -286,7 +287,7 @@
                     <version>3.0.0</version>
                   </requireMavenVersion>
                   <requireJavaVersion>
-                    <version>1.6</version>
+                    <version>${java.version}</version>
                   </requireJavaVersion>
                 </rules>
               </configuration>
@@ -301,7 +302,7 @@
         <plugin>
           <groupId>org.tomdz.twirl</groupId>
           <artifactId>twirl-maven-plugin</artifactId>
-          <version>1.0.0</version>
+          <version>1.0.1</version>
           <executions>
             <execution>
               <goals>
@@ -348,6 +349,12 @@
               <jvmArg>-Xms64m</jvmArg>
               <jvmArg>-Xmx1024m</jvmArg>
             </jvmArgs>
+            <javacArgs>
+              <javacArg>-source</javacArg>
+              <javacArg>${java.version}</javacArg>
+              <javacArg>-target</javacArg>
+              <javacArg>${java.version}</javacArg>
+            </javacArgs>
           </configuration>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>
@@ -355,8 +362,8 @@
           <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>2.5.1</version>
           <configuration>
-            <source>1.6</source>
-            <target>1.6</target>
+            <source>${java.version}</source>
+            <target>${java.version}</target>
             <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
             <maxmem>1024m</maxmem>
           </configuration>
diff --git a/repl/pom.xml b/repl/pom.xml
index b6f0eed69403282aa7e215a0ffd5759b957e9af6..9cca79e975f0727486788edf0e1d4b7f0b500f23 100644
--- a/repl/pom.xml
+++ b/repl/pom.xml
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
     <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>
     <artifactId>parent</artifactId>
     <version>0.6.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <groupId>org.spark-project</groupId>