Surefire normally automatically selects which test-framework provider to use based on the version of TestNG/JUnit present in your project's classpath. In some cases it may be desirable to manually override such a selection. This can be done by adding the required provider as a dependency to the surefire-plugin.
The following example shows how to force the junit 4.7 provider:
[...]
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>${surefire.version}</version>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.surefire</groupId>
<artifactId>surefire-junit47</artifactId>
<version>${surefire.version}</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
</plugin>
[...]The providers supplied with surefire are surefire-junit3, surefire-junit4, surefire-junit47 and surefire-testng. Please note that forcing a provider still requires that the test framework is properly set up on your project classpath.