diff --git a/doc/source/contributing.rst b/doc/source/contributing.rst
index 17bd60db..84b843c2 100644
--- a/doc/source/contributing.rst
+++ b/doc/source/contributing.rst
@@ -6,32 +6,19 @@
 Running the Tests
 -----------------
 
-The test suite includes functional tests that use a MySQL database, so
-you must configure a database user.
-
-For MySQL you can use the following commands::
-
- mysql -u root
- mysql> CREATE USER 'openstack_citest'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY
-        'openstack_citest';
- mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON * . * TO 'openstack_citest'@'localhost';
- mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
-
-Note that the script tools/test-setup.sh can be used for the step
-above.
-
 Storyboard uses tox_ to manage its unit and functional tests. After
-installing tox and downloading the storyboard source, run the tests
-with::
+installing tox and downloading the storyboard source the next step is
+to install system dependencies. Run::
 
-  $ tox -e py27
+  $ tox -e bindep
 
-or for Python 3::
+Then take the listed packages and install them with your system package
+manager. For example::
 
-  $ tox -e py35
+  $ sudo apt-get install package list here
 
-For faster versions of the integration tests using only Python 3,
-run::
+To run the tests quickly on your local development machine you can run
+the tests with the sqlite backend::
 
   $ tox -e sqlite
 
@@ -39,11 +26,31 @@ And to run the style-checker and static analysis tool::
 
   $ tox -e pep8
 
-On slower systems, the database migrations may take longer than the
-default timeout of 60 seconds. To override the timeout, set the
-``OS_TEST_TIMEOUT`` environment variable. For example, to set the
-timeout to 2 minutes, run::
+If you would like to run the test suite with proper database backends or
+with python2 instead of python3 there is one more step to follow. Note
+that the testsuite takes quite a bit longer to run when using the MySQL
+and PostgreSQL database backends.
 
-  $ OS_TEST_TIMEOUT=120 tox -e py27
+First ensure MySQL and PostgreSQL are running (you may need to start
+these services). Then run the test-setup.sh helper script::
+
+  $ tools/test-setup.sh
+
+This script needs to be run with a user that has sudo access. It will
+configure the databases as needed to run the unittests. You can then
+runt the unittests with::
+
+  $ tox -e py27
+
+or for Python 3::
+
+  $ tox -e py35
+
+On slower systems, the database migrations may take longer than the
+default timeout of 120 seconds. To override the timeout, set the
+``OS_TEST_TIMEOUT`` environment variable. For example, to set the
+timeout to 3 minutes, run::
+
+  $ OS_TEST_TIMEOUT=180 tox -e py27
 
 .. _tox: https://tox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/