The findbugs:check goal allows you to configure your build to fail if any errors are found in the FindBugs report.
The following code fragment enables the check in a build during the verify phase. The check will fail if any of the filter triggers in the include file are met.
<project>
...
<build>
<plugins>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>findbugs-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>testing</version>
<configuration>
<effort>Max</effort>
<threshold>Low</threshold>
<includeFilterFile>whizbang/lib-filter.xml</includeFilterFile>
</configuration>
</plugins>
</build>
...
</project>