After breaking my head for two days why dependencies aren't working anymore, Ales kindly pointed out to me that my properties are in the wrong order. It turns out this is a global problem. If I deploy this: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <server> <mbean code="org.jboss.mq.server.jmx.Topic" name="jboss.mq.destination:service=Topic,name=myTestTopic"> <attribute name="JNDIName">topic/myTestTopic</attribute> <depends optional-attribute-name="DestinationManager">jboss.mq:service=DestinationManager</depends> </mbean> </server> I get this in jmx-console: jboss.mq.destination * name=myTestTopic,service=Topic Note the reversal of the properties. I'm digging down into this, but maybe this will ring a bell to someone. Carlo