diff --git a/tests/test_codec_common.py b/tests/test_codec_common.py
index 8fa80cc..30e9979 100644
--- a/tests/test_codec_common.py
+++ b/tests/test_codec_common.py
@@ -27,3 +27,10 @@ def test_unpack_invalid_words(self):
         words = 3 * b'\x00'  # length not even
         with self.assertRaises(ValueError):
             codec_common.unpack_words(words)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    # This enables running the unit tests by running this script which is
+    # much more convenient than 'python setup.py test' while developing tests.
+    # Note: package-under-test needs to be in python-path
+    unittest.main()
diff --git a/tests/test_datamatrix.py b/tests/test_datamatrix.py
index 03bf77b..5f28a3f 100644
--- a/tests/test_datamatrix.py
+++ b/tests/test_datamatrix.py
@@ -123,3 +123,10 @@ def test_random_messages(self):
             msg = ''.join(random.choices(ASCII, k=n))
             datamatrix = put.DataMatrix(msg)
             self.assertTrue(len(datamatrix.matrix) > 0)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    # This enables running the unit tests by running this script which is
+    # much more convenient than 'python setup.py test' while developing tests.
+    # Note: package-under-test needs to be in python-path
+    unittest.main()