diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index 20b5bc2..839fa31 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ name: Test
 on: [push, pull_request]
 
 env:
+  POSTGRES_USER: postgres
+  POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
+  POSTGRES_DB: postgres
   FORCE_COLOR: 1
 
 jobs:
@@ -16,11 +19,11 @@ jobs:
 
     services:
       postgres:
-        image: postgres:12
+        image: postgres:13-alpine
         env:
-          POSTGRES_USER: postgres
-          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
-          POSTGRES_DB: postgres
+          POSTGRES_USER: ${{ env.POSTGRES_USER }}
+          POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${{ env.POSTGRES_PASSWORD }}
+          POSTGRES_DB: ${{ env.POSTGRES_DB }}
         ports:
         - 5432:5432
         options: >-
@@ -60,11 +63,9 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         tox -v -- --cov --cov-append --cov-report term-missing --cov-report xml
       env:
-        DB_NAME: postgres
-        DB_USER: postgres
-        DB_PASSWORD: postgres
-        DB_HOST: localhost
-        DB_PORT: 5432
+        POSTGRES_DB: ${{ env.POSTGRES_DB }}
+        POSTGRES_USER: ${{ env.POSTGRES_USER }}
+        POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${{ env.POSTGRES_PASSWORD }}
 
     - name: Upload coverage
       uses: codecov/codecov-action@v3
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.rst b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
index 433912f..5b9a4c3 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.rst
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.rst
@@ -74,6 +74,18 @@ To run tox and generate a coverage report (in ``htmlcov`` directory)::
 
     make test
 
+A database is required to run the tests. For convince there is a ``docker-compose.yml`` file for spinning up a
+database container. To start the database container run:
+
+    docker-compose up -d
+
+Another way to run the tests with a sqlite database is to export the `SQLITE` variable::
+
+    export SQLITE=1
+    make test
+    # or
+    SQLITE=1 python setup.py test
+
 **Please note**: Before a pull request can be merged, all tests must pass and
 code/branch coverage in tests must be 100%.
 
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e74ec8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+services:
+  postgres:
+    image: postgres:13-alpine
+    environment:
+      POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD: trust
+      POSTGRES_DB: modelutils
+      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
+    ports:
+    - 5432:5432
diff --git a/tests/settings.py b/tests/settings.py
index 1475fca..c4de921 100644
--- a/tests/settings.py
+++ b/tests/settings.py
@@ -15,14 +15,13 @@ else:
     DATABASES = {
         "default": {
             "ENGINE": "django.db.backends.postgresql",
-            "NAME": os.environ.get("DB_NAME", "modelutils"),
-            "USER": os.environ.get("DB_USER", 'postgres'),
-            "PASSWORD": os.environ.get("DB_PASSWORD", ""),
-            "HOST": os.environ.get("DB_HOST", "localhost"),
-            "PORT": os.environ.get("DB_PORT", 5432)
+            "NAME": os.environ.get("POSTGRES_DB", "modelutils"),
+            "USER": os.environ.get("POSTGRES_USER", 'postgres'),
+            "PASSWORD": os.environ.get("POSTGRES_PASSWORD", ""),
+            "HOST": os.environ.get("POSTGRES_HOST", "localhost"),
+            "PORT": os.environ.get("POSTGRES_PORT", 5432)
         },
     }
-
 SECRET_KEY = 'dummy'
 
 CACHES = {
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index d176147..fcf087a 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ passenv =
     CI
     FORCE_COLOR
     GITHUB_*
-    DB_*
+    POSTGRES_*
 usedevelop = True
 commands =
     python -m pytest {posargs}