Hamcrest is a neat little library that lets you write more fluent and readable tests. For example, rather than writing:

    assertEquals("red", color);

    assertThat(color,is("red"));

A version of Hamcrest is actually bundled with JUnit. However it is somewhat dated, and the more recent versions of Hamcrest come with a lot more features, particularly with regards to working with collections. You can use the latest version of Hamcrest by using the junit-dep dependency instead of junit, and configuring your dependencies as shown here:

    <dependency>
	    <groupId>junit</groupId>
	    <artifactId>junit-dep</artifactId>
	    <version>4.10</version>
	    <scope>test</scope>
	    <exclusions>
	        <exclusion>
	            <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
	            <artifactId>hamcrest-core</artifactId>
	        </exclusion>
	    </exclusions>
	</dependency>
	<dependency>
	    <groupId>org.hamcrest</groupId>
	    <artifactId>hamcrest-library</artifactId>
	    <version>1.3.RC2</version>
	</dependency>