diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2b4daef3..d7ee44ab 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 .bundle/
-.cookbooks/
+berks-cookbooks/
 .kitchen
 .vagrant
 .coverage/
diff --git a/.rubocop.yml b/.rubocop.yml
index 8ac2ed6f..e85d66c6 100644
--- a/.rubocop.yml
+++ b/.rubocop.yml
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 AllCops:
-  Includes:
+  Include:
     - metadata.rb
     - Gemfile
     - attributes/**
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ AllCops:
     - recipes/**
     - resources/**
     - spec/**
+  Exclude:
+    - berks-cookbooks/**
 
 Encoding:
   Exclude:
diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index f1bb3cc1..9e098bbb 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@ gem 'rspec', '~> 3.0.0'
 gem 'foodcritic', '~> 3.0.3'
 gem 'strainer'
 gem 'rubocop', '~> 0.18.1'
+gem 'rake', '~> 10.0'
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e9952dfa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+task default: ["test"]
+
+task :test => [:lint, :style, :unit]
+
+task :bundler_prep do
+  mkdir_p '.bundle'
+  sh %{bundle install --path=.bundle --jobs 1 --retry 3 --verbose}
+end
+
+task :berks_prep => :bundler_prep do
+  sh %{bundle exec berks vendor}
+end
+
+task :lint => :bundler_prep do
+  sh %{bundle exec foodcritic --epic-fail any --tags ~FC003 --tags ~FC023 .}
+end
+
+task :style => :bundler_prep do
+  sh %{bundle exec rubocop}
+end
+
+task :unit => :berks_prep do
+  sh %{bundle exec rspec --format documentation}
+end
+
+task :clean do
+  rm_rf [
+    '.bundle',
+    'berks-cookbooks',
+    'Gemfile.lock',
+    'Berksfile.lock'
+  ]
+end
diff --git a/TESTING.md b/TESTING.md
index c12d4f20..f95fce9b 100644
--- a/TESTING.md
+++ b/TESTING.md
@@ -1,18 +1,18 @@
 # Testing the Cookbook #
 
-This cookbook uses [bundler](http://gembundler.com/) and [berkshelf](http://berkshelf.com/) to isolate dependencies.
+This cookbook uses [bundler](http://gembundler.com/) and [berkshelf](http://berkshelf.com/) to isolate dependencies. Make sure you have `ruby 1.9.x`, `bundler`, `rake`, build essentials and the header files for `gecode` installed before continuing. Make sure that you're using gecode version 3. More info [here](https://github.com/opscode/dep-selector-libgecode/tree/0bad63fea305ede624c58506423ced697dd2545e#using-a-system-gecode-instead).
 
-To setup the dependencies:
+We have three test suites which you can run either, individually (there are three rake tasks):
 
-    $ bundle install --path=.bundle # install gem dependencies
-    $ bundle exec berks vendor .cookbooks # install cookbook dependencies and create the folder .cookbooks
+    $ rake lint
+    $ rake style
+    $ rake unit
 
-To run the tests:
+or altogether:
 
-    $ export COOKBOOK='openstack-common'
-    $ bundle exec foodcritic -f any -t ~FC003 -t ~FC023 .cookbooks/$COOKBOOK
-    $ bundle exec rubocop .cookbooks/$COOKBOOK
-    $ bundle exec rspec --format documentation .cookbooks/$COOKBOOK/spec
+    $ rake test
+
+The `rake` tasks will take care of installing the needed gem dependencies and cookbooks with `berkshelf`.
 
 ## Rubocop  ##