diff --git a/doc/source/write_tests.rst b/doc/source/write_tests.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..768bf0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/write_tests.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,243 @@
+.. _tempest_test_writing:
+
+Tempest Test Writing Guide
+==========================
+
+This guide serves as a starting point for developers working on writing new
+Tempest tests. At a high level tests in Tempest are just tests that conform to
+the standard python `unit test`_ framework. But there are several aspects of
+that are unique to tempest and it's role as an integration test suite running
+against a real cloud.
+
+.. _unit test: https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/unittest.html
+
+.. note:: This guide is for writing tests in the tempest repository. While many
+          parts of this guide are also applicable to tempest plugins, not all
+          the APIs mentioned are considered stable or recommended for use in
+          plugins. Please refer to :ref:`tempest_plugin` for details about
+          writing plugins
+
+
+Adding a New TestCase
+=====================
+
+The base unit of testing in Tempest is the `TestCase`_ (also called the test
+class). Each TestCase contains test methods which are the individual tests that
+will be executed by the test runner. But, the TestCase is the smallest self
+contained unit for tests from the tempest perspective. It's also the level at
+which tempest is parallel safe. In other words, multiple TestCases can be
+executed in parallel, but individual test methods in the same TestCase can not.
+Also, all test methods within a TestCase are assumed to be executed serially. As
+such you can use the test case to store variables that are shared between
+methods.
+
+.. _TestCase: https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/unittest.html#unittest.TestCase
+
+In standard unittest the lifecycle of a TestCase can be described in the
+following phases:
+
+ #. setUpClass
+ #. setUp
+ #. Test Execution
+ #. tearDown
+ #. doCleanups
+ #. tearDownClass
+
+setUpClass
+----------
+
+The setUpClass phase is the first phase executed by the test runner and is used
+to perform any setup required for all the test methods to be executed. In
+Tempest this is a very important step and will automatically do the necessary
+setup for interacting with the configured cloud.
+
+To accomplish this you do **not** define a setUpClass function, instead there
+are a number of predefined phases to setUpClass that are used. The phases are:
+
+ * skip_checks
+ * setup_credentials
+ * setup_clients
+ * resource_setup
+
+which is executed in that order. An example of a TestCase which defines all
+of these would be::
+
+  from tempest import config
+  from tempest import test
+
+  CONF = config.CONF
+
+
+  class TestExampleCase(test.BaseTestCase):
+
+    @classmethod
+    def skip_checks(cls):
+        """This section is used to evaluate config early and skip all test
+           methods based on these checks
+        """
+        super(TestExampleCase, cls).skip_checks()
+        if not CONF.section.foo
+            cls.skip('A helpful message')
+
+    @classmethod
+    def setup_credentials(cls):
+        """This section is used to do any manual credential allocation and also
+           in the case of dynamic credentials to override the default network
+           resource creation/auto allocation
+        """
+        # This call is used to tell the credential allocator to not create any
+        # network resources for this test case. It also enables selective
+        # creation of other neutron resources. NOTE: it must go before the
+        # super call
+        cls.set_network_resources()
+        super(TestExampleCase, cls).setup_credentials()
+
+    @classmethod
+    def setup_clients(cls):
+        """This section is used to setup client aliases from the manager object
+           or to initialize any additional clients. Except in a few very
+           specific situations you should not need to use this.
+        """
+        super(TestExampleCase, cls).setup_clients()
+        cls.servers_client = cls.os.servers_client
+
+    @classmethod
+    def resource_setup(cls):
+        """This section is used to create any resources or objects which are
+           going to be used and shared by **all** test methods in the
+           TestCase. Note then anything created in this section must also be
+           destroyed in the corresponding resource_cleanup() method (which will
+           be run during tearDownClass())
+        """
+        super(TestExampleCase, cls).resource_setup()
+        cls.shared_server = cls.servers_client.create_server(...)
+
+
+Allocating Credentials
+''''''''''''''''''''''
+
+Since Tempest tests are all about testing a running cloud, every test will need
+credentials to be able to make API requests against the cloud. Since this is
+critical to operation and, when running in parallel, easy to make a mistake,
+the base TestCase class will automatically allocate a regular user for each
+TestCase during the setup_credentials() phase. During this process it will also
+initialize a client manager object using those credentials, which will be your
+entry point into interacting with the cloud. For more details on how credentials
+are allocated the :ref:`tempest_cred_provider_conf` section of the Tempest
+Configuration Guide provides more details on the operation of this.
+
+There are some cases when you need more than a single set of credentials, or
+credentials with a more specialized set of roles. To accomplish this you have
+to set a class variable ``credentials`` on the TestCase directly. For example::
+
+    from tempest import test
+
+    class TestExampleAdmin(test.BaseTestCase):
+
+        credentials = ['primary', 'admin']
+
+    @classmethod
+    def skip_checks(cls):
+    ...
+
+In this example the ``TestExampleAdmin`` TestCase will allocate 2 sets of
+credentials, one regular user and one admin user. The corresponding manager
+objects will be set as class variables cls.os and cls.os_adm respectively. You
+can also allocate a second user by putting **'alt'** in the list too. A set of
+alt credentials are the same as primary but can be used for tests cases that
+need a second user/project.
+
+You can also specify credentials with specific roles assigned. This is useful
+for cases where there are specific RBAC requirements hard coded into an API.
+The canonical example of this are swift tests which often want to test swift's
+concepts of operator and reseller_admin. An actual example from tempest on how
+to do this is::
+
+    class PublicObjectTest(base.BaseObjectTest):
+
+        credentials = [['operator', CONF.object_storage.operator_role],
+                       ['operator_alt', CONF.object_storage.operator_role]]
+
+        @classmethod
+        def setup_credentials(cls):
+            super(PublicObjectTest, cls).setup_credentials()
+            ...
+
+In this case the manager objects will be set to ``cls.os_roles_operator`` and
+``cls.os_roles_operator_alt`` respectively.
+
+
+There is no limit to how many credentials you can allocate in this manner,
+however in almost every case you should **not** need more than 3 sets of
+credentials per test case.
+
+To figure out the mapping of manager objects set on the TestCase and the
+requested credentials you can reference:
+
++-------------------+---------------------+
+| Credentials Entry | Manager Variable    |
++===================+=====================+
+| primary           | cls.os              |
++-------------------+---------------------+
+| admin             | cls.os_adm          |
++-------------------+---------------------+
+| alt               | cls.os_alt          |
++-------------------+---------------------+
+| [$label, $role]   | cls.os_roles_$label |
++-------------------+---------------------+
+
+By default cls.os is available since it is allocated in the base tempest test
+class. (located in tempest/test.py) If your TestCase inherits from a different
+direct parent class (it'll still inherit from the BaseTestCase, just not
+directly) be sure to check if that class overrides allocated credentials.
+
+Dealing with Network Allocation
+'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
+
+When neutron is enabled and a testing requires networking this isn't normally
+automatically setup when a tenant is created. Since tempest needs isolated
+tenants to function properly it also needs to handle network allocation. By
+default the base test class will allocate a network, subnet, and router
+automatically. (this depends on the configured credential provider, for more
+details see: :ref:`tempest_conf_network_allocation`) However, there are
+situations where you do no need all of these resources allocated. (or your
+TestCase inherits from a class that overrides the default in tempest/test.py)
+There is a class level mechanism to override this allocation and specify which
+resources you need. To do this you need to call `cls.set_network_resources()`
+in the `setup_credentials()` method before the `super()`. For example::
+
+  from tempest import test
+
+
+  class TestExampleCase(test.BaseTestCase):
+
+  @classmethod
+  def setup_credentials(cls):
+      cls.set_network_resources(network=True, subnet=True, router=False)
+      super(TestExampleCase, cls).setup_credentials()
+
+There are 2 quirks with the usage here. First for the set_network_resources
+function to work properly it **must be called before super()**. This is so
+that children classes' settings are always used instead of a parent classes'.
+The other quirk here is that if you do not want to allocate any network
+resources for your test class simply call `set_network_resources()` without
+any arguments. For example::
+
+  from tempest import test
+
+
+  class TestExampleCase(test.BaseTestCase):
+
+  @classmethod
+  def setup_credentials(cls):
+      cls.set_network_resources()
+      super(TestExampleCase, cls).setup_credentials()
+
+This will not allocate any networking resources. This is because by default all
+the arguments default to False.
+
+It's also worth pointing out that it is common for base test classes for
+different services (and scenario tests) to override this setting. When
+inheriting from classes other than the base TestCase in tempest/test.py it is
+worth checking the immediate parent for what is set to determine if your
+class needs to override that setting.