diff --git a/doc/source/contributing.rst b/doc/source/contributing.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index 1728a61..0000000
--- a/doc/source/contributing.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-============
-Contributing
-============
-.. include:: ../../CONTRIBUTING.rst
diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
index 11480f2..ddd0c47 100644
--- a/doc/source/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/index.rst
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ Welcome to mixmatch's documentation!
 
 Contents:
 
+Operators Guide
+---------------
+
 ..  toctree::
     :maxdepth: 2
 
@@ -16,14 +19,23 @@ Contents:
     installation
     identity
     volumes
-    contributing
+
+* `Release Notes <https://mixmatch.readthedocs.org/projects/releasenotes>`_
+
+Contributors Guide
+------------------
+
+..  toctree::
+    :maxdepth: 2
+   
+   reference
 
 ..  toctree::
     :maxdepth: 1
 
     specs
 
-* `Release Notes <https://mixmatch.readthedocs.org/projects/releasenotes>`_
+
 
 Indices and tables
 ==================
diff --git a/doc/source/reference.rst b/doc/source/reference.rst
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@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+===================
+Developer Reference
+===================
+
+The Mixmatch project is generously hosted by the OpenStack infrastructure.
+While the project is funded and developed primarily by the Massachusetts Open
+Cloud, we are always welcoming to new contributors.
+
+Contributing to OpenStack
+=========================
+
+.. include:: ../../CONTRIBUTING.rst
+
+Setting up a development environment
+====================================
+
+Devstack is the mechanism of choice for setting up a development environment.
+For the latest branch we recommend a virtual machine running Ubuntu 16.04, with
+more than 4GB of RAM and 40GB of space.
+
+Clone Devstack from git (#1) and copy the sample configuration file from the
+samples folder to the root folder (#2). Next, open the newly copied
+`local.conf` file with your editor of choice (in our case `vi` #3).::
+
+    git clone git://git.openstack.org/openstack-dev/devstack #1
+    cd devstack
+    cp samples/local.conf . #2
+    vi local.conf #3
+
+Devstack is extensible and allows plugins for the installation and
+configuration of different additional components depending on need. Mixmatch
+provides one such Devstack plugin, so let's go ahead an enable it by adding
+the following line at the end of `local.conf`. ::
+
+    enable_plugin mixmatch git://git.openstack.org/openstack/mixmatch
+    REGISTER_MIXMATCH=true
+
+Finally, run `stack.sh`. (We recommend doing so inside a screen in case of
+connectivity issues.) This should take around 20-30 minutes and is a good time
+to brew some coffee. ::
+
+    ./stack.sh
+
+Running the tests
+=================
+
+There are two types of tests. Unit tests and functional tests. These are run
+automatically on every proposed change.
+
+Unit tests
+----------
+
+Unit tests do not require setting up a development environment and can be
+simply run through `tox`. `tox` can be installed through pip (#1) or from the
+system packages (#2, #3). ::
+
+    sudo pip install tox #1
+    sudo apt install python-tox #2
+    sudo yum install python-tox #3
+
+`tox` supports multiple testing environments, and a specific one can be
+selected by running `tox -e <environment>`. Valid environment choices are
+`py27`, `py35`, and `pep8`. For example, to run the unit tests in the
+Python 2.7 environment: ::
+
+    tox -e py27
+
+The `pep8` environment will not run the unit tests, but will check the code
+for conformance to the PEP8 coding guidelines for Python.
+
+Passing the checks for all the above three environments is a hard requirement
+for the approval of proposed changes.
+
+Functional tests
+----------------
+
+While unit tests do not require a development environment, functional tests do.
+See above for how to set up one.
+
+Functional testing is done through tempest. It exercises the proxying
+functionality by running all the API tests for the Compute, Volume, and Image
+services. Additionally it runs all the scenario tests which simulate a
+more realistic workload. We maintain a blacklist file in
+`mixmatch/tests/functioanl/tempest_blacklist.txt` for individual tests which
+fail for known reasons. To run the functional tests, change into the tempest
+directory (#1) and run #2: ::
+
+    cd /opt/stack/tempest #1
+    ostestr -r '(^tempest.api.compute|^tempest.api.image|^tempest.api.volume|^tempest.scenario)' \
+        --blacklist-file <MIXMATCH_DIR>/mixmatch/mixmatch/tests/functional/tempest_blacklist.txt #2
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