diff --git a/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/invoker.properties b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/invoker.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9041f9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/invoker.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+# 
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+# 
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+invoker.maven.version = 3.0+
+invoker.goals.1 = clean install -DskipTests
+invoker.goals.2 = --log-file help.log org.apache.maven.its.plugin:help:1.0-SNAPSHOT:help
diff --git a/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/pom.xml b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/pom.xml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cafacd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/pom.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<!--
+Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+distributed with this work for additional information
+regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+"License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+"AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+specific language governing permissions and limitations
+under the License.
+-->
+
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
+
+  <groupId>org.apache.maven.its.plugin</groupId>
+  <artifactId>help</artifactId>
+  <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
+  <packaging>maven-plugin</packaging>
+
+  <description>
+    Tests generation and compilation of the help mojo.
+  </description>
+
+  <properties>
+    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
+  </properties>
+
+  <dependencies>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
+      <artifactId>maven-plugin-api</artifactId>
+      <version>2.0</version>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.codehaus.plexus</groupId>
+      <artifactId>plexus-utils</artifactId>
+      <version>3.0.1</version>
+    </dependency>
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugin-tools</groupId>
+      <artifactId>maven-plugin-annotations</artifactId>
+      <version>@project.version@</version>
+      <scope>provided</scope>
+    </dependency>
+  </dependencies>
+
+  <build>
+    <pluginManagement>
+      <plugins>
+        <plugin>
+          <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+          <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
+          <version>2.4</version>
+        </plugin>
+      </plugins>
+    </pluginManagement>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-plugin-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>@project.version@</version>
+        <executions>
+          <execution>
+            <id>default-descriptor</id>
+            <phase>process-classes</phase>
+          </execution>
+          <execution>
+            <id>help-goal</id>
+            <goals>
+              <goal>helpmojo</goal>
+            </goals>
+          </execution>
+        </executions>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+</project>
diff --git a/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/src/main/java/test/MyMojo.java b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/src/main/java/test/MyMojo.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a5e518
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/src/main/java/test/MyMojo.java
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+package test;
+
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ * 
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ * 
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+
+import org.apache.maven.plugin.AbstractMojo;
+import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Mojo;
+import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Parameter;
+
+@Mojo( name= "test" )
+public class MyMojo
+    extends AbstractMojo
+{
+    @Parameter
+    private String empyAnnotatedParameter;
+    
+    public void execute()
+    {
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/test.properties b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/test.properties
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8b28eaa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maven-plugin-plugin/src/it/mplugin-299_no-configuration/test.properties
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+# 
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+# 
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+detail = true
+goal = test
diff --git a/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/resources/help-class-source.vm b/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/resources/help-class-source.vm
index cc05145..5393e53 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/resources/help-class-source.vm
+++ b/maven-plugin-tools-generators/src/main/resources/help-class-source.vm
@@ -321,7 +321,11 @@ public class HelpMojo
         String parameterName = getValue( parameter, "name" );
         String parameterDescription = getValue( parameter, "description" );
 
-        Element fieldConfigurationElement = (Element) findSingleChild( configurationElement, parameterName );
+        Element fieldConfigurationElement = null;
+        if ( configurationElement != null )
+        {
+          fieldConfigurationElement =  (Element) findSingleChild( configurationElement, parameterName );
+        }
 
         String parameterDefaultValue = "";
         if ( fieldConfigurationElement != null && fieldConfigurationElement.hasAttribute( "default-value" ) )