diff --git a/doc/source/pluginguide.rst b/doc/source/pluginguide.rst
index 3cb97d0f8b..57b81267d2 100644
--- a/doc/source/pluginguide.rst
+++ b/doc/source/pluginguide.rst
@@ -507,6 +507,14 @@ the engine will make them available next time the service starts.
 See one of the Installation Guides at http://docs.OpenStack.org/ for
 more information on configuring the orchestration service.
 
+Testing
+-------
+
+Tests can live inside the plug-in under the ``tests``
+namespace/directory. The Heat plug-in loader will implicitly not load
+anything under that directory. This is useful when your plug-in tests
+have dependencies you don't want installed in production.
+
 Putting It All Together
 -----------------------
 You can find the plugin classes in ``heat/engine/resources``.  An
diff --git a/heat/common/plugin_loader.py b/heat/common/plugin_loader.py
index 59e11da60f..7ca017b9b2 100644
--- a/heat/common/plugin_loader.py
+++ b/heat/common/plugin_loader.py
@@ -86,6 +86,11 @@ def load_modules(package, ignore_error=False):
 
     for importer, module_name, is_package in pkgutil.walk_packages(path,
                                                                    pkg_prefix):
+        # NOTE(chmouel): Skips tests package or this will try to load
+        # them when loading plugins.
+        if '.tests.' in module_name:
+            continue
+
         try:
             module = _import_module(importer, module_name, package)
         except ImportError:
diff --git a/heat/tests/test_plugin_loader.py b/heat/tests/test_plugin_loader.py
index 04e2ea72cf..74383e6515 100644
--- a/heat/tests/test_plugin_loader.py
+++ b/heat/tests/test_plugin_loader.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 import pkgutil
 import sys
 
+import mock
 import testtools
 
 from heat.common import plugin_loader
@@ -64,3 +65,14 @@ class PluginLoaderTest(testtools.TestCase):
         self.assertIsNone(plugin_loader._import_module(importer,
                                                        'wibble',
                                                        heat.engine))
+
+    @mock.patch.object(plugin_loader, "_import_module", mock.MagicMock())
+    @mock.patch('pkgutil.walk_packages')
+    def test_load_modules_skip_test(self, mp):
+        importer = pkgutil.ImpImporter(heat.engine.__path__[0])
+
+        mp.return_value = ((importer, "hola.foo", None),
+                           (importer, "hola.tests.test_foo", None))
+        loaded = plugin_loader.load_modules(
+            heat.engine, ignore_error=True)
+        self.assertEqual(1, len(list(loaded)))
diff --git a/heat/tests/test_plugin_manager.py b/heat/tests/test_plugin_manager.py
index e9011b4231..1b19d61e12 100644
--- a/heat/tests/test_plugin_manager.py
+++ b/heat/tests/test_plugin_manager.py
@@ -90,10 +90,27 @@ class TestPluginManager(HeatTestCase):
             self.assertTrue(module.__name__.startswith('heat.tests') or
                             module.__name__.startswith('heat.engine.plugins'))
 
-    def test_load_all(self):
+    def test_load_all_skip_tests(self):
         mgr = plugin_manager.PluginManager('heat.tests')
         pm = plugin_manager.PluginMapping('current_test')
 
         all_items = pm.load_all(mgr)
+
+        for item in current_test_mapping().iteritems():
+            self.assertNotIn(item, all_items)
+
+    def test_load_all(self):
+        import heat.tests.test_plugin_manager
+        mgr = plugin_manager.PluginManager('heat.tests')
+        pm = plugin_manager.PluginMapping('current_test')
+
+        # NOTE(chmou): We force the modules to be ourself so we can get
+        # the current_test_mapping if not we will would be
+        # skipped by plugin_loader.load_modules since we are skipping
+        # the loading of the package with tests in there
+        mgr.modules = [heat.tests.test_plugin_manager]
+
+        all_items = pm.load_all(mgr)
+
         for item in current_test_mapping().iteritems():
             self.assertIn(item, all_items)