diff --git a/conftest.py b/conftest.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..19cb2998
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conftest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+
+# -*- Mode: python; tab-width: 4; indent-tabs-mode:nil; coding:utf-8 -*-
+# vim: tabstop=4 expandtab shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4
+#
+# PMDA
+# Copyright (c) 2017 The MDAnalysis Development Team and contributors
+# (see the file AUTHORS for the full list of names)
+#
+# Released under the GNU Public Licence, v2 or any higher version
+
+from dask import distributed, multiprocessing
+import pytest
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session", params=(1, 2))
+def client(tmpdir_factory, request):
+    with tmpdir_factory.mktemp("dask_cluster").as_cwd():
+        lc = distributed.LocalCluster(n_workers=request.param, processes=True)
+        client = distributed.Client(lc)
+
+        yield client
+
+        client.close()
+        lc.close()
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope='session', params=('distributed', 'multiprocessing'))
+def scheduler(request, client):
+    if request.param == 'distributed':
+        return client
+    else:
+        return multiprocessing
diff --git a/pmda/test/test_custom.py b/pmda/test/test_custom.py
index c8e7cbbe..23c0a3ea 100644
--- a/pmda/test/test_custom.py
+++ b/pmda/test/test_custom.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 from numpy.testing import assert_equal
 
 from pmda import custom
-from pmda.testing import scheduler
 
 def custom_function(mobile):
     return mobile.center_of_geometry()
diff --git a/pmda/test/test_parallel.py b/pmda/test/test_parallel.py
index 37cf0fcd..1fcb6cc0 100644
--- a/pmda/test/test_parallel.py
+++ b/pmda/test/test_parallel.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 from dask import distributed, multiprocessing
 
 from pmda import parallel
-from pmda.testing import scheduler
 
 
 def test_timeing():