diff --git a/jOOQ-codegen-maven/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/maven/Plugin.java b/jOOQ-codegen-maven/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/maven/Plugin.java
index 06348d2165..b8f8733385 100644
--- a/jOOQ-codegen-maven/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/maven/Plugin.java
+++ b/jOOQ-codegen-maven/src/main/java/org/jooq/util/maven/Plugin.java
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ import static org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.ResolutionScope.TEST;
 import static org.jooq.Constants.XSD_CODEGEN;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.net.URLClassLoader;
@@ -84,6 +85,12 @@ public class Plugin extends AbstractMojo {
     )
     private MavenProject                 project;
 
+    /**
+     * An external configuration file that overrides anything in the Maven configuration
+     */
+    @Parameter
+    private String                       configurationFile;
+
     /**
      * Whether to skip the execution of the Maven Plugin for this module.
      */
@@ -115,6 +122,25 @@ public class Plugin extends AbstractMojo {
             return;
         }
 
+        if (configurationFile != null) {
+            getLog().info("Reading external configuration");
+            File file = new File(configurationFile);
+
+            if (!file.isAbsolute())
+                file = new File(project.getBasedir(), configurationFile);
+
+            FileInputStream in = null;
+            try {
+                in = new FileInputStream(file);
+                Configuration configuration = GenerationTool.load(in);
+                generator = configuration.getGenerator();
+                jdbc = configuration.getJdbc();
+            }
+            catch (Exception e) {
+                throw new RuntimeException(e);
+            }
+        }
+
         // [#5286] There are a variety of reasons why the generator isn't set up
         //         correctly at this point. We'll log them all here.
         if (generator == null) {