diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 287343f82..73b0c8d68 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
     <property name="single" value="*Test" />
     <property name="singleintegration" value="*IntegrationTest" />
 
+    <!-- do we want to halt on failure of a junit test? default to yes (Bamboo uses 'no') -->
+    <property name="halt" value="yes" />
+    
     <!-- should our junit test output go to a file or the screen?
     false means it goes to the screen (default) true to file -->
     <property name="usefile" value="false" />
@@ -257,7 +260,7 @@
     <target name="test" depends="test.compile,agent" description="Run unit tests">
         <mkdir dir="${report}"/>
         <echo message="Sting: Running test cases!"/>
-        <junit printsummary="yes" showoutput="yes" clonevm="yes" haltonfailure="yes" failureProperty="test.failure">
+        <junit printsummary="yes" showoutput="yes" clonevm="yes" haltonfailure="${halt}" failureProperty="test.failure">
             <jvmarg value="-javaagent:build/TestAgent.jar"/>
             <formatter type="${testOutput}" usefile="${usefile}" />
             <classpath>
@@ -282,7 +285,7 @@
             description="Run the long integration unit tests">
         <mkdir dir="${report}"/>
         <echo message="Sting: Running integration test cases!"/>
-        <junit printsummary="yes" showoutput="yes" clonevm="yes" haltonfailure="yes" failureProperty="test.failure">
+        <junit printsummary="yes" showoutput="yes" clonevm="yes" haltonfailure="${halt}" failureProperty="test.failure">
             <formatter type="${testOutput}" usefile="${usefile}" />
             <classpath>
                 <path refid="runtime.dependencies"/>