There are working patterns in my experience. Pattern #1:
Use maven-release-plugin-2.5.1 that allows multiple releasable items in a single repo. Then you can have a shared parent pom in its own directory (with no modules) that you release, and then a series of independently released components sitting next to it, and each has the appropriate release plugin configuration. Pattern #2: One glorious gigantic monolith -- a parent with modules -- released all at once. Pattern #3: Multiple git repos, one for each releasable item.
