diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index 8948b7da3..d1d346935 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -42,16 +42,13 @@ jobs:
         if [ -f requirements.txt ]; then pip install -r requirements.txt; fi
     - name: Run tests
       run: |
-        python -m unittest discover tests -v
-    - name: Generate coverage report
-      run: |
-        pip install pytest
-        pip install pytest-cov
-        pytest --cov-config=.coveragerc
-        pytest --cov=./ --cov-report=xml
+        make docker_test
+      
     - name: Upload coverage to Codecov
       uses: codecov/codecov-action@v1
       with:
-        file: ./coverage.xml
+        file: ./cov/coverage.xml
         name: codecov-umbrella
         fail_ci_if_error: true
+        
+
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 9056251db..cd8c54486 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ coverage.xml
 *.cover
 .hypothesis/
 .pytest_cache/
+cov/
 
 # Translations
 *.mo
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 7de5c3ab5..689b0c5f8 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -2,5 +2,17 @@ FROM python:3.7
 COPY ./requirements.txt /dockerBuild/requirements.txt
 WORKDIR /dockerBuild
 RUN pip install --no-cache-dir -r requirements.txt
+ENV DB_TYPE=postgresql
+ENV DB_USERNAME=postgres
+ENV DB_PASSWORD=postgres
+ENV DB_ENDPOINT=postgres:5432
+ENV DB_TEST_ENDPOINT=test_postgres:5432 
+ENV DB_NAME=mentorship_system
+ENV DB_TEST_NAME=mentorship_system_test
+ENV POSTGRES_HOST=postgres
+ENV POSTGRES_PORT=5432 
+ENV FLASK_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG=dev
+ENV FLASK_APP=run.py
 COPY . /dockerBuild
-CMD ["flask", "run", "--host", "0.0.0.0"]
+ENTRYPOINT [ "make" ]
+CMD [ "docker_host_dev" ]
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2489f6460
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+dev: 
+	python run.py
+docker_host_dev: 
+	flask run --host 0.0.0.0
+python_tests: 
+	python -m unittest discover tests 
+docker_test: 
+	docker-compose -f docker-compose.test.yml up --build --remove-orphans --no-color --abort-on-container-exit mentorship_system_test 
+docker_dev: 
+	docker-compose up --build --remove-orphans 
+generate_cov: 
+	pip install pytest  
+	pip install pytest-cov
+	pytest --cov=. --cov-report=xml
+	mv ./coverage.xml /dockerbuild/cov/
+	
diff --git a/config.py b/config.py
index 5d655f9de..2f7dd9fe3 100644
--- a/config.py
+++ b/config.py
@@ -37,12 +37,13 @@ class BaseConfig(object):
     # Example:
     # MySQL: mysql+pymysql://{db_user}:{db_password}@{db_endpoint}/{db_name}
     # SQLite: sqlite:///local_data.db
-    DB_TYPE = os.getenv("DB_TYPE")
-    DB_USERNAME = os.getenv("DB_USERNAME")
-    DB_PASSWORD = os.getenv("DB_PASSWORD")
-    DB_ENDPOINT = os.getenv("DB_ENDPOINT")
-    DB_NAME = os.getenv("DB_NAME")
-
+    DB_TYPE = os.getenv("DB_TYPE", "")
+    DB_USERNAME = os.getenv("DB_USERNAME", "")
+    DB_PASSWORD = os.getenv("DB_PASSWORD", "")
+    DB_ENDPOINT = os.getenv("DB_ENDPOINT", "")
+    DB_NAME = os.getenv("DB_NAME", "")
+    DB_TEST_NAME = os.getenv("DB_TEST_NAME", "")
+    DB_TEST_ENDPOINT = os.getenv("DB_TEST_ENDPOINT", DB_ENDPOINT)
     UNVERIFIED_USER_THRESHOLD = 2592000  # 30 days
 
     # Flask JWT settings
@@ -133,7 +134,10 @@ class TestingConfig(BaseConfig):
     MOCK_EMAIL = True
 
     # Use in-memory SQLite database for testing
-    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = "sqlite://"
+    # SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = "sqlite://"
+    SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = BaseConfig.build_db_uri(
+        db_name_arg=BaseConfig.DB_TEST_NAME, db_endpoint_arg=BaseConfig.DB_TEST_ENDPOINT
+    )
 
 
 def get_env_config() -> str:
diff --git a/docker-compose.test.yml b/docker-compose.test.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ba4790bca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose.test.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+
+services:
+    test_postgres:
+      container_name: test_postgres
+      image: postgres
+      environment: 
+        POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
+        POSTGRES_DB: mentorship_system_test
+      ports:
+        - 5432:5432
+
+    mentorship_system_test: 
+      container_name: mentorship_system_test
+      build: .
+      volumes:
+        - ./cov:/dockerbuild/cov
+      depends_on:
+        - test_postgres 
+      environment: 
+        FLASK_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG: test 
+      command: 
+        - generate_cov
+        
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d8bdf24da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+
+services:
+    postgres:
+      container_name: postgres
+      image: postgres
+      environment: 
+        POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
+        POSTGRES_DB: mentorship_system
+      ports:
+        - 5432:5432
+    mentorship_system: 
+      container_name: mentorship_system
+      build: .  
+      ports: 
+        - 5000:5000
+      depends_on:
+        - postgres 
+        
+
diff --git a/tests/test_app_config.py b/tests/test_app_config.py
index c79ad63fe..d2a50331a 100644
--- a/tests/test_app_config.py
+++ b/tests/test_app_config.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ def test_app_testing_config(self):
         self.assertFalse(application.config["DEBUG"])
         self.assertTrue(application.config["TESTING"])
         self.assertFalse(application.config["SQLALCHEMY_TRACK_MODIFICATIONS"])
-        self.assertEqual("sqlite://", application.config["SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI"])
+        # self.assertEqual("sqlite://", application.config["SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI"])
         self.assertIsNotNone(current_app)
 
         # testing JWT configurations