diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index 385e63dde5..21d8202680 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1706,6 +1706,8 @@ Release 2.7.3 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-12706. TestLocalFsFCStatistics#testStatisticsThreadLocalDataCleanUp
     times out occasionally (Sangjin Lee and Colin Patrick McCabe via jlowe)
 
+    HADOOP-12761. incremental maven build is not really incremental (sjlee)
+
 Release 2.7.2 - 2016-01-25
 
   INCOMPATIBLE CHANGES
diff --git a/hadoop-project/pom.xml b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
index 3f4e93f8c5..1f391db906 100644
--- a/hadoop-project/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-project/pom.xml
@@ -1005,6 +1005,7 @@
           <configuration>
             <source>${javac.version}</source>
             <target>${javac.version}</target>
+            <useIncrementalCompilation>false</useIncrementalCompilation>
           </configuration>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>