Using System Properties

There are two ways to add a list of system properties to Failsafe:

systemPropertyVariable

This configuration is the replacement of the deprecated systemProperies. It can accept any value from Maven's properties that can be converted to String value

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.8.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <systemPropertyVariables>
            <propertyName>propertyValue</propertyName>
            <buildDirectory>${project.build.directory}</buildDirectory>
            [...]
          </systemPropertyVariables>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

systemProperties ( deprecated ) 

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.8.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <systemProperties>
            <property>
              <name>propertyName</name>
              <value>propertyValue</value>
            </property>
            [...]
          </systemProperties>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>integration-test</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>integration-test</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
          <execution>
            <id>verify</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>verify</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

Take note that String valued properties can only be passed as system properties. Any attempt to pass any other Maven variable type (i.e. List or a URL variable) will cause the variable expression to be passed literally (unevaluated). So having an example below:

<project>
  [...]
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-failsafe-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.8.1</version>
        <configuration>
          <systemProperties>
            <property>
              <name>buildDir</name>
              <value>${project.build.outputDirectory}</value>
            </property>
          </systemProperties>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <id>integration-test</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>integration-test</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
          <execution>
            <id>verify</id>
            <goals>
              <goal>verify</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
  [...]
</project>

will literally pass ${project.build.outputDirectory} because the value of that expression is a File, not a String.