Sometimes you can get an error like so:
SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'entityManagerFactory' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/sprin
g/spring-orm.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: javax.persistence.spi.PersistenceUnitInfo.getValidationMod
e()Ljavax/persistence/ValidationMode;
It could also mean that the dependency you are including may be dependent on an incompatible dependency with your project.
for example..
you can do <exclusions> tag to not package the offending dependency in your war by doing something like this:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.ibm.websphere</groupId>
<artifactId>wxsutils</artifactId>
<version>2.5.4-SNAPSHOT</version>
<exclusions>
<exclusion>
<groupId>org.apache.geronimo.specs</groupId>
<artifactId>geronimo-jpa_3.0_spec</artifactId>
</exclusion>
</exclusions>
</dependency>
