diff --git a/archetype-models/archetype-descriptor/src/main/mdo/archetype-descriptor.mdo b/archetype-models/archetype-descriptor/src/main/mdo/archetype-descriptor.mdo
index bbb026ae4..f49089fee 100644
--- a/archetype-models/archetype-descriptor/src/main/mdo/archetype-descriptor.mdo
+++ b/archetype-models/archetype-descriptor/src/main/mdo/archetype-descriptor.mdo
@@ -166,7 +166,8 @@
           <name>directory</name>
           <version>1.0.0+</version>
           <type>String</type>
-          <required>true</required>
+          <required>false</required>
+          <defaultValue/>
           <description>The directory where the files will be searched for, which is also the directory where the
            project's files will be generated.</description>
         </field>
diff --git a/maven-archetype-plugin/src/it/projects/ARCHETYPE-606_include-gitignore/src/main/resources/META-INF/maven/archetype-metadata.xml b/maven-archetype-plugin/src/it/projects/ARCHETYPE-606_include-gitignore/src/main/resources/META-INF/maven/archetype-metadata.xml
index abe554697..9da1a8d72 100644
--- a/maven-archetype-plugin/src/it/projects/ARCHETYPE-606_include-gitignore/src/main/resources/META-INF/maven/archetype-metadata.xml
+++ b/maven-archetype-plugin/src/it/projects/ARCHETYPE-606_include-gitignore/src/main/resources/META-INF/maven/archetype-metadata.xml
@@ -19,13 +19,12 @@ specific language governing permissions and limitations
 under the License.
 -->
 
-<archetype-descriptor xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-archetype-plugin/archetype-descriptor/1.0.0"
+<archetype-descriptor xmlns="https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-archetype-plugin/archetype-descriptor/1.1.0"
     xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-archetype-plugin/archetype-descriptor/1.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/archetype-descriptor-1.0.0.xsd"
+    xsi:schemaLocation="https://maven.apache.org/plugins/maven-archetype-plugin/archetype-descriptor/1.1.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/archetype-descriptor-1.1.0.xsd"
     name="build-archetype-IT">
   <fileSets>
     <fileSet encoding="UTF-8">
-      <directory></directory>
       <includes>
         <include>.gitignore</include>
       </includes>