Exception thrown when issueManagement section of pom is missing

org.apache.maven.lifecycle.LifecycleExecutionException: Failed to extract JIRA issues from the downloaded file
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:583)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.forkProjectLifecycle(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:931)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.forkLifecycle(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:767)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:529)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeStandaloneGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:512)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoal(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:482)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoalAndHandleFailures(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:330)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeTaskSegments(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:291)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.execute(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:142)
	at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.doExecute(DefaultMaven.java:336)
	at org.apache.maven.DefaultMaven.execute(DefaultMaven.java:129)
	at org.apache.maven.cli.MavenCli.main(MavenCli.java:287)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launchEnhanced(Launcher.java:315)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.launch(Launcher.java:255)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.mainWithExitCode(Launcher.java:430)
	at org.codehaus.classworlds.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:375)
Caused by: org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException: Failed to extract JIRA issues from the downloaded file
	at org.apache.maven.plugin.announcement.AnnouncementMojo.getJiraReleases(AnnouncementMojo.java:630)
	at org.apache.maven.plugin.announcement.AnnouncementMojo.doJiraGenerate(AnnouncementMojo.java:578)
	at org.apache.maven.plugin.announcement.AnnouncementMojo.execute(AnnouncementMojo.java:335)
	at org.apache.maven.plugin.DefaultPluginManager.executeMojo(DefaultPluginManager.java:451)
	at org.apache.maven.lifecycle.DefaultLifecycleExecutor.executeGoals(DefaultLifecycleExecutor.java:558)
	... 19 more
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
	at org.apache.maven.plugin.jira.AbstractJiraDownloader.doExecute(AbstractJiraDownloader.java:397)
	at org.apache.maven.plugin.announcement.AnnouncementMojo.getJiraReleases(AnnouncementMojo.java:612)
	... 23 more