<plugin>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
    <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>1.6.0</version>
        <configuration>
            <mainClass>${mainClass}</mainClass> //the application java class from properties tag
            <arguments>
                <argument>server</argument>
            </arguments>
      </configuration>
</plugin>

[INFO] --- exec-maven-plugin:1.6.0:java (default-cli) @ hello-dropwizard ---
[WARNING]
java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 1
        at org.hibernate.validator.internal.util.Version.getJavaRelease(Version.java:36)
        at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ConfigurationImpl.<init>(ConfigurationImpl.java:120)
        at org.hibernate.validator.internal.engine.ConfigurationImpl.<init>(ConfigurationImpl.java:106)
        at org.hibernate.validator.HibernateValidator.createSpecializedConfiguration(HibernateValidator.java:27)
        at org.hibernate.validator.HibernateValidator.createSpecializedConfiguration(HibernateValidator.java:24)
        at javax.validation.Validation$ProviderSpecificBootstrapImpl.configure(Validation.java:220)
        at io.dropwizard.validation.BaseValidator.newConfiguration(BaseValidator.java:28)
        at io.dropwizard.jersey.validation.Validators.newConfiguration(Validators.java:35)
        at io.dropwizard.jersey.validation.Validators.newValidatorFactory(Validators.java:27)
        at io.dropwizard.setup.Bootstrap.<init>(Bootstrap.java:68)
        at io.dropwizard.Application.run(Application.java:72)
        at com.dropwizard.demo.HeloDropWizardApplication.main