Maven/Eclipse integration is handled by adding the M2E plugin to your Eclipse environment and followng a pom-first configuration strategy.
Import an existing maven project into Eclipse as a maven project
M2E will inpsect the pom.xml and configure Eclipse accordingly
M2E provides mechanisms to create new maven projects (we will not discuss)
Notice the Eclipse project dependencies are in sync with the versions specified in the pom.xml
If you make a valid change to the pom.xml the Eclipse dependencies will update
Dependency hierachy shows
Which modules bring in other modules
Specific versions and where there are conflicts
When things are not automatically updated, try...
Refresh/F5
Project->Clean
Maven->Update Projects
Note
A build from the command line that includes a clean
and fails to complete can leave Eclipse in an unhappy state
(lots of red unresolved references). Resolve with a successful
build and repeat some/all of the above actions.