diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 9745d47e92..9e1054ad90 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 language: java
 jdk:
+  - oraclejdk8
   - oraclejdk7
   - openjdk7
   - openjdk6
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a1c7f2a138..4db368ad9c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.springframework.batch</groupId>
       <artifactId>spring-batch-infrastructure</artifactId>
-      <version>3.0.3.RELEASE</version>
+      <version>3.0.4.RELEASE</version>
       <scope>provided</scope>
     </dependency>
 
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>ognl</groupId>
       <artifactId>ognl</artifactId>
-      <version>3.0.8</version>
+      <version>3.0.11</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
 
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.jboss.byteman</groupId>
       <artifactId>byteman-bmunit</artifactId>
-      <version>2.2.1</version>
+      <version>3.0.0</version>
       <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
 
@@ -222,10 +222,6 @@
           <groupId>nekohtml</groupId>
           <artifactId>nekohtml</artifactId>
         </exclusion>
-        <exclusion>
-          <groupId>xerces</groupId>
-          <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
-        </exclusion>
       </exclusions>
     </dependency>
     <dependency>
@@ -310,6 +306,7 @@
     </testResources>
   </build>
 
+  <!-- TODO: Why is this necessary, the dependency is alreayd present at this scope? -->
   <!-- this is just a turnaround to Mac compilers -->
   <profiles>
     <profile>