What is difference between <scope> and <phase> in maven plugin (jbehave example)

Question

As in title - here is piece of code.

I can have < scope > as well as < phase >

Jbehave documentation doesn't say much about it (http://jbehave.org/reference/stable/maven-goals.html)

               <execution>
                    <id>run-stories</id>
                    <phase>test</phase>
                    <configuration>
                        <!--<scope>test</scope>-->
                        <includes>
                            <include>**/*Stories*.java</include>
                        </includes>
                    </configuration>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>run-stories-as-embeddables</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>

Answer 1

The <phase/> element/property is a "standard" Maven property that indicates which phase of the Maven lifecycle the execution will occur in.

The <scope/> element/property you're referring to is specific to the JBehave plugin itself. Per the plugin's documentation, it seems that <scope/> is used to control which "set" of your project's Maven dependencies will be included in the JBehave plugin run. Per this answer on the JBehave site, it seems that, typically, JBehave is executed using only the project's main dependencies and code, not the test dependencies and code.