Since 2.1, a goal is provided to validate your changes.xml file.
You can attach this goal to the pre-site phase if you want the validation to be performed automatically when you generate the site.
First you must configure the plugin and tell it to validate your changes.xml file.
<project>
...
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-changes-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.10</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<id>validate-changes</id>
<phase>pre-site</phase>
<goals>
<goal>changes-validate</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<!-- if set to true the build will fail if the changes file is invalid,
if set to false warnings will be logged. -->
<failOnError>true</failOnError>
</configuration>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
...
</project>