diff --git a/heat/common/config.py b/heat/common/config.py
index 9d4a67b25c..7320a63e52 100644
--- a/heat/common/config.py
+++ b/heat/common/config.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ import logging as sys_logging
 import os
 
 from eventlet.green import socket
+from oslo_concurrency import processutils
 from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_log import log as logging
 
@@ -84,7 +85,7 @@ service_opts = [
                default=5,
                help=_('Maximum depth allowed when using nested stacks.')),
     cfg.IntOpt('num_engine_workers',
-               default=1,
+               default=processutils.get_worker_count(),
                help=_('Number of heat-engine processes to fork and run.'))]
 
 engine_opts = [
diff --git a/heat_integrationtests/pre_test_hook.sh b/heat_integrationtests/pre_test_hook.sh
index 2a2d0442e7..ba3eb8cc8a 100755
--- a/heat_integrationtests/pre_test_hook.sh
+++ b/heat_integrationtests/pre_test_hook.sh
@@ -17,4 +17,6 @@
 localrc_path=$BASE/new/devstack/localrc
 localconf=$BASE/new/devstack/local.conf
 echo "HEAT_ENABLE_ADOPT_ABANDON=True" >> $localrc_path
-echo -e '[[post-config|$HEAT_CONF]]\n[DEFAULT]\nnotification_driver=messagingv2' >> $localconf
+echo -e '[[post-config|$HEAT_CONF]]\n[DEFAULT]\n' >> $localconf
+echo -e 'notification_driver=messagingv2\n' >> $localconf
+echo -e 'num_engine_workers=2\n' >> $localconf
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 55f117394b..e2db0b192a 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ kombu>=2.5.0
 lxml>=2.3
 netaddr>=0.7.12
 oslo.config>=1.9.3,<1.10.0  # Apache-2.0
+oslo.concurrency>=1.8.0,<1.9.0         # Apache-2.0
 oslo.context>=0.2.0,<0.3.0                     # Apache-2.0
 oslo.db>=1.7.0,<1.8.0  # Apache-2.0
 oslo.i18n>=1.5.0,<1.6.0  # Apache-2.0