Error thrown on running pom.xml+ testng=selenium: failed to execute goal - maven

Question

I've thrown with an error and I tried with mulitple options on the testng reading,could someone show me the correct way of setting the goal or exectuion on xml or is this is due to surfire plugin.
With the way it shows I figured it could be something on execution goals.some help??
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.15:test (default-test) on project pams: A type incompatibility occured while executing org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.15:test: java.io.File cannot be cast to java.lang.Class
[ERROR] -----------------------------------------------------
[ERROR] realm = plugin>org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.15
[ERROR] strategy = org.codehaus.plexus.classworlds.strategy.SelfFirstStrategy
Here is the pom.xml I've been using,
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>xxx</groupId>
<artifactId>xxx</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>xxx</name>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>selenium-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.testng</groupId>
<artifactId>testng</artifactId>
<version>6.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.15</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-report-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.15</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.6</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
<artifactId>selenium-server</artifactId>
<version>2.3.0</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
<artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
<version>2.33.0</version>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<testSourceDirectory>${basedir}/src/test/com</testSourceDirectory>
<outputDirectory>${basedir}/target/classes</outputDirectory>
<pluginManagement>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.1</version>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>selenium-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.3</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<phase>pre-integration-test</phase>
<goals>
<goal>start-server</goal>
</goals>
<configuration>
<background>true</background>
</configuration>
</execution>
<execution>
<id>stop-selenium</id>
<phase>post-integration-test</phase>
<goals>
<goal>stop-server</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<version>2.15</version>
<configuration>
<forkCount>3</forkCount>
<reuseForks>true</reuseForks>
<parallel>methods</parallel>
<threadCount>10</threadCount>
<suiteXmlFiles>
<suiteXmlFile>${basedir}/testng.xml</suiteXmlFile>
</suiteXmlFiles>
<!-- <suiteXmlFiles> -->
<!-- <suiteXmlFile>${basedir}/testsuite-persistence-layer.xml</suiteXmlFile> -->
<!-- </suiteXmlFiles> -->
<!-- <skipTests>false</skipTests> -->
<!-- <systemPropertyVariables> -->
<!-- <propertyName>firefox</propertyName> -->
<!-- </systemPropertyVariables> -->
</configuration>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>test</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</pluginManagement>
</build>
</project>

Answer 1

It's surefire plugin: I tried your pom and (with some dummy contents for testng.xml) had the same issue. When reverted to v2.14, surefire plugin doesn't throw this error and proceeds to the tests.