Shouldn't this line https://github.com/celery/django-celery/blob/49e3fbbe9c08159014bb25e827376683af545d8d/djcelery/contrib/test_runner.py#L68 be CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND='djcelery.backends.database:DatabaseBackend', When using the runner it tries to install sqlalquemy with celery 3.1