1. A computer-implemented method for handling errors during a runtime of a distributed software application distributed and executed among a plurality of computer systems, the method comprising acts of: instantiating at least one computer system an execution monitoring module, and monitoring with the execution monitoring module the distributed application for exceptions while running at the computer systems among which the application is distributed; upon determining with the execution monitoring module that an exception has occurred during the execution of the distributed application on at least one of the plurality of computer systems passing the exception to an exception translation module and then translating the exception that occurred during distributed execution in a distributed environment into a serial exception that appears to have occurred during serial execution in a serial execution environment, wherein the translated serial exception comprises a general exception that indicates to the application developer why the distributed application failed, regardless of whether a portion or the entire distributed application failed; and presenting the translated serial exception to an application developer along with one or more portions of exception data.