diff --git a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/plugin/testing/ConfigurationException.java b/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/plugin/testing/ConfigurationException.java
deleted file mode 100644
index dd13791..0000000
--- a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/plugin/testing/ConfigurationException.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,51 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * 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.
- */
-package org.apache.maven.api.plugin.testing;
-
-/**
- * ConfigurationException
- *
- * @author jesse
- */
-public class ConfigurationException extends Exception {
-    /** serialVersionUID */
-    static final long serialVersionUID = -6180939638742159065L;
-
-    /**
-     * @param message The detailed message.
-     */
-    public ConfigurationException(String message) {
-        super(message);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * @param cause The detailed cause.
-     */
-    public ConfigurationException(Throwable cause) {
-        super(cause);
-    }
-
-    /**
-     * @param message The detailed message.
-     * @param cause The detailed cause.
-     */
-    public ConfigurationException(String message, Throwable cause) {
-        super(message, cause);
-    }
-}
diff --git a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/plugin/testing/MojoExtension.java b/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/plugin/testing/MojoExtension.java
index 9e96ab5..30ab673 100644
--- a/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/plugin/testing/MojoExtension.java
+++ b/maven-plugin-testing-harness/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/api/plugin/testing/MojoExtension.java
@@ -560,9 +560,7 @@ public static XmlNode extractPluginConfiguration(String artifactId, Xpp3Dom pomD
                 .filter(e -> e.getChild("artifactId").getValue().equals(artifactId))
                 .findFirst()
                 .flatMap(buildElement -> child(buildElement, "configuration"))
-                .orElseThrow(
-                        () -> new ConfigurationException("Cannot find a configuration element for a plugin with an "
-                                + "artifactId of " + artifactId + "."));
+                .orElse(Xpp3DomBuilder.build(new StringReader("<configuration/>")));
         return pluginConfigurationElement.getDom();
     }