diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 32858aa..72ffe53 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -10,3 +10,13 @@
 
 # virtual machine crash logs, see http://www.java.com/en/download/help/error_hotspot.xml
 hs_err_pid*
+
+target/
+*.class
+*.jar
+*.war
+.idea/
+*.iml
+.settings/
+.classpath
+.project
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 3cab62f..f4b9555 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@
     <artifactId>CucumberBasics</artifactId>
     <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
     <properties>
-         <maven.compiler.source>1.6</maven.compiler.source>
-         <maven.compiler.target>1.6</maven.compiler.target>
+         <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
+         <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
     </properties>
     <dependencies>