diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 871e176ff0..6ebe0821fc 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -94,9 +94,10 @@ before_install:
 
 install:
 - travis_retry pip install $EXTRA_PIP_FLAGS -e .[$NIPYPE_EXTRAS]
+- travis_retry pip install pytest-xdist
 
 script:
-- py.test -v --cov nipype --cov-config .coveragerc --cov-report xml:cov.xml -c nipype/pytest.ini --doctest-modules nipype
+- py.test -v --cov nipype --cov-config .coveragerc --cov-report xml:cov.xml -c nipype/pytest.ini --doctest-modules nipype -n auto
 
 after_script:
 - codecov --file cov.xml --flags unittests -e TRAVIS_JOB_NUMBER
diff --git a/docker/files/run_pytests.sh b/docker/files/run_pytests.sh
index 24d9466f80..c3d33f2f53 100644
--- a/docker/files/run_pytests.sh
+++ b/docker/files/run_pytests.sh
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ export COVERAGE_FILE=${WORKDIR}/tests/.coverage.py${PYTHON_VERSION}
 py.test -v --junitxml=${WORKDIR}/tests/pytests_py${PYTHON_VERSION}.xml \
     --cov nipype --cov-config /src/nipype/.coveragerc \
     --cov-report xml:${WORKDIR}/tests/coverage_py${PYTHON_VERSION}.xml \
+    -n auto \
     -c ${TESTPATH}/pytest.ini ${TESTPATH}
 exit_code=$?
 
diff --git a/docker/generate_dockerfiles.sh b/docker/generate_dockerfiles.sh
index 9c281f8bbc..cbe26d05a8 100755
--- a/docker/generate_dockerfiles.sh
+++ b/docker/generate_dockerfiles.sh
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@ function generate_main_dockerfile() {
                 conda_install='python=${PYTHON_VERSION_MAJOR}.${PYTHON_VERSION_MINOR}
                                icu=58.1 libxml2 libxslt matplotlib mkl numpy paramiko
                                pandas psutil scikit-learn scipy traits=4.6.0' \
-                pip_install="grabbit==0.1.2 https://github.com/INCF/pybids/tarball/0.6.5" \
+                pip_install="pytest-xdist" \
                 activate=true \
     --copy docker/files/run_builddocs.sh docker/files/run_examples.sh \
            docker/files/run_pytests.sh nipype/external/fsl_imglob.py /usr/bin/ \
diff --git a/nipype/__init__.py b/nipype/__init__.py
index ad961e7df4..172617e887 100644
--- a/nipype/__init__.py
+++ b/nipype/__init__.py
@@ -25,17 +25,22 @@
 
 
 class NipypeTester(object):
-    def __call__(self, doctests=True, parallel=True):
+    def __call__(self, doctests=True, parallel=False):
         try:
             import pytest
-        except:
+        except ImportError:
             raise RuntimeError(
                 'py.test not installed, run: pip install pytest')
         args = []
         if not doctests:
             args.extend(['-p', 'no:doctest'])
-        if not parallel:
-            args.append('-n0')
+        if parallel:
+            try:
+                import xdist
+            except ImportError:
+                raise RuntimeError(
+                    "pytest-xdist required for parallel run")
+            args.append('-n auto')
         args.append(os.path.dirname(__file__))
         pytest.main(args=args)
 
diff --git a/nipype/info.py b/nipype/info.py
index 7b1a757789..2dd5489e0a 100644
--- a/nipype/info.py
+++ b/nipype/info.py
@@ -109,7 +109,6 @@ def get_nipype_gitversion():
 SCIPY_MIN_VERSION = '0.14'
 TRAITS_MIN_VERSION = '4.6'
 DATEUTIL_MIN_VERSION = '2.2'
-PYTEST_MIN_VERSION = '3.6'
 FUTURE_MIN_VERSION = '0.16.0'
 SIMPLEJSON_MIN_VERSION = '3.8.0'
 PROV_VERSION = '1.5.2'
@@ -149,19 +148,16 @@ def get_nipype_gitversion():
     'neurdflib',
     'click>=%s' % CLICK_MIN_VERSION,
     'funcsigs',
-    'mock',
     'pydotplus',
     'pydot>=%s' % PYDOT_MIN_VERSION,
     'packaging',
     'futures; python_version == "2.7"',
+    'configparser; python_version <= "3.4"',
 ]
 
-if sys.version_info <= (3, 4):
-    REQUIRES.append('configparser')
-
 TESTS_REQUIRES = [
-    'pytest>=%s' % PYTEST_MIN_VERSION,
-    'pytest-xdist',
+    'mock',
+    'pytest',
     'pytest-cov',
     'codecov',
     'pytest-env',
diff --git a/nipype/pytest.ini b/nipype/pytest.ini
index 70f12b64aa..c5706c3f75 100644
--- a/nipype/pytest.ini
+++ b/nipype/pytest.ini
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [pytest]
 norecursedirs = .git build dist doc nipype/external tools examples src
-addopts = --doctest-modules -n auto
+addopts = --doctest-modules
 doctest_optionflags = ALLOW_UNICODE NORMALIZE_WHITESPACE
 env =
     PYTHONHASHSEED=0
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1d1a4d1f9c..0d951f49c0 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -11,10 +11,6 @@ neurdflib
 click>=6.6.0
 funcsigs
 configparser
-pytest>=3.0
-pytest-xdist
-pytest-env
-mock
 pydotplus
 pydot>=1.2.3
 packaging