diff --git a/hyracks/hyracks-hdfs/hyracks-hdfs-core/pom.xml b/hyracks/hyracks-hdfs/hyracks-hdfs-core/pom.xml
index b6dcc9c..0d3a3e2 100644
--- a/hyracks/hyracks-hdfs/hyracks-hdfs-core/pom.xml
+++ b/hyracks/hyracks-hdfs/hyracks-hdfs-core/pom.xml
@@ -191,12 +191,6 @@
 
 	<dependencies>
 		<dependency>
-			<groupId>junit</groupId>
-			<artifactId>junit</artifactId>
-			<version>3.8.1</version>
-			<scope>test</scope>
-		</dependency>
-		<dependency>
 			<groupId>edu.uci.ics.hyracks</groupId>
 			<artifactId>hyracks-api</artifactId>
 			<version>0.2.11-SNAPSHOT</version>
diff --git a/hyracks/pom.xml b/hyracks/pom.xml
index 2884ed9..d8d3c63 100644
--- a/hyracks/pom.xml
+++ b/hyracks/pom.xml
@@ -23,8 +23,18 @@
 
   <properties>
     <jvm.extraargs />
+    <exclude.tests>edu.uci.ics.hyracks.test.infrastructure.SlowTest</exclude.tests>
   </properties>
 
+  <profiles>
+    <profile>
+      <id>slow</id>
+      <properties>
+	<exclude.tests>java.lang.String</exclude.tests>
+      </properties>
+    </profile>
+  </profiles>
+
   <build>
     <plugins>
       <plugin>
@@ -43,10 +53,18 @@
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
         <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
-        <version>2.12</version>
+        <version>2.16</version>
+        <dependencies>
+          <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.apache.maven.surefire</groupId>
+            <artifactId>surefire-junit47</artifactId>
+            <version>2.16</version>
+          </dependency>
+        </dependencies>
         <configuration>
           <forkMode>pertest</forkMode>
           <argLine>-enableassertions -Djava.util.logging.config.file=${user.home}/logging.properties -Xdebug -Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,address=8000,suspend=n ${jvm.extraargs} -Xmx2048m</argLine>
+	  <excludedGroups>${exclude.tests}</excludedGroups>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>