diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 5842236..ee41dbf 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 module.exports = {
     prepare: require('./src/prepare'),
-    publish: require('./src/publish')
+    publish: require('./src/publish'),
+    verifyConditions: require('./src/verify-conditions')
 };
diff --git a/src/maven.js b/src/maven.js
index f6d252b..4eb18d2 100644
--- a/src/maven.js
+++ b/src/maven.js
@@ -5,14 +5,14 @@
 const SemanticReleaseError = require("@semantic-release/error");
 const execa = require('execa');
 
-function exec () {
+function exec() {
     const childProcess = execa(...arguments);
     childProcess.stdout.pipe(process.stdout);
     childProcess.stderr.pipe(process.stderr);
     return childProcess;
 }
 
-async function updateVersion (logger, versionStr) {
+async function updateVersion(logger, versionStr) {
     logger.log(`Updating pom.xml to version ${versionStr}`);
     await exec(
         'mvn',
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ async function updateVersion (logger, versionStr) {
     );
 }
 
-async function deploy (logger, nextRelease, settingsFile) {
+async function deploy(logger, nextRelease, settingsFile) {
     logger.log('Deploying version %s with maven', nextRelease.version);
     try {
         await exec(
@@ -34,7 +34,22 @@ async function deploy (logger, nextRelease, settingsFile) {
     }
 }
 
+async function testMvn(logger) {
+    logger.log('Testing if mvn exists');
+    try {
+        await exec(
+            'mvn',
+            ['-v']
+        )
+    } catch (e) {
+        logger.error('failed to run mvn');
+        logger.errror(e);
+        throw new SemanticReleaseError('failed to run mvn');
+    }
+}
+
 module.exports = {
     deploy,
-    updateVersion
+    updateVersion,
+    testMvn
 };
diff --git a/src/verify-conditions.js b/src/verify-conditions.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9180b1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/verify-conditions.js
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+const {
+    testMvn
+} = require("./maven");
+
+module.exports = async function prepare(logger) {
+    await testMvn(logger);
+};