diff --git a/DEVELOPER.md b/DEVELOPER.md
index 851704fd5e..5c9f3b1574 100644
--- a/DEVELOPER.md
+++ b/DEVELOPER.md
@@ -95,23 +95,22 @@ Next, install the modules and packages needed to build Angular and run tests:
 ```shell
 # Install Angular project dependencies (package.json)
 npm install
-
-# Ensure protractor has the latest webdriver
-$(npm bin)/webdriver-manager update
-
-# Install Dart packages
-pub get
 ```
 
 **Optional**: In this document, we make use of project local `npm` package scripts and binaries
 (stored under `./node_modules/.bin`) by prefixing these command invocations with `$(npm bin)`; in
-particular `gulp` and `protractor` commands. If you prefer, you can drop this path prefix by
-globally installing these two packages as follows:
+particular `gulp` and `protractor` commands. If you prefer, you can drop this path prefix by either:
+
+*Option 1*: globally installing these two packages as follows:
 
 * `npm install -g gulp` (you might need to prefix this command with `sudo`)
 * `npm install -g protractor` (you might need to prefix this command with `sudo`)
 
-Since global installs can become stale, we avoid their use in these instructions.
+Since global installs can become stale, and required versions can vary by project, we avoid their
+use in these instructions.
+
+*Option 2*: defining a bash alias like `alias nbin='PATH=$(npm bin):$PATH'` as detailed in this
+[Stackoverflow answer](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9679932/how-to-use-package-installed-locally-in-node-modules/15157360#15157360) and used like this: e.g., `nbin gulp build`.
 
 ## Build commands
 
@@ -133,22 +132,35 @@ $(npm bin)/gulp clean
 
 ## Running Tests Locally
 
-### Basic tests
+### Full test suite
 
-1. `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.js`: JS tests in a browser; runs in **watch mode** (i.e. karma
-  watches the test files for changes and re-runs tests when files are updated).
-2. `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.cjs`: JS tests in NodeJS; runs in **watch mode**
-3. `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.dart`: Dart tests in Dartium; runs in **watch mode**.
+* `npm test`: full test suite for both JS and Dart versions of Angular. These are the same tests as
+  those run on Travis.
+
+You can selectively run either the JS or Dart versions as follows:
+
+* `$(npm bin)/gulp test.all.js`
+* `$(npm bin)/gulp test.all.dart`
+
+### Unit tests
+
+You can run just the unit tests as follows:
+
+* `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.js`: JS tests in a browser; runs in **watch mode** (i.e. karma
+   watches the test files for changes and re-runs tests when files are updated).
+* `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.cjs`: JS tests in NodeJS; runs in **watch mode**.
+* `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.dart`: Dart tests in Dartium; runs in **watch mode**.
 
 If you prefer running tests in "single-run" mode rather than watch mode use
 
 * `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.js/ci`
+* `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.cjs/ci`
 * `$(npm bin)/gulp test.unit.dart/ci`
 
-**Note**: If you want to only run a single test you can alter the test you wish
-to run by changing `it` to `iit` or `describe` to `ddescribe`. This will only
-run that individual test and make it much easier to debug. `xit` and `xdescribe`
-can also be useful to exclude a test and a group of tests respectively.
+**Note**: If you want to only run a single test you can alter the test you wish to run by changing
+`it` to `iit` or `describe` to `ddescribe`. This will only run that individual test and make it
+much easier to debug. `xit` and `xdescribe` can also be useful to exclude a test and a group of
+tests respectively.
 
 **Note** for transpiler tests: The karma preprocessor is setup in a way so that after every test
 run the transpiler is reloaded. With that it is possible to make changes to the preprocessor and
@@ -232,4 +244,3 @@ on the `debugger;` statement.
 You can then step into the code and add watches.
 The `debugger;` statement is needed because WebStorm will stop in a transpiled file. Breakpoints in
 the original source files are not supported at the moment.
-
diff --git a/gulpfile.js b/gulpfile.js
index 5c1810ca0f..54a452500d 100644
--- a/gulpfile.js
+++ b/gulpfile.js
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 var gulp = require('gulp');
 var gulpPlugins = require('gulp-load-plugins')();
+var shell = require('gulp-shell');
 var runSequence = require('run-sequence');
 var madge = require('madge');
 var merge = require('merge');
@@ -26,6 +27,7 @@ var runServerDartTests = require('./tools/build/run_server_dart_tests');
 var transformCJSTests = require('./tools/build/transformCJSTests');
 var util = require('./tools/build/util');
 
+// Note: when DART_SDK is not found, all gulp tasks ending with `.dart` will be skipped.
 var DART_SDK = require('./tools/build/dartdetect')(gulp);
 // -----------------------
 // configuration
@@ -431,7 +433,11 @@ gulp.task('build/multicopy.dart', copy.multicopy(gulp, gulpPlugins, {
 // ------------
 // pubspec
 
-gulp.task('build/pubspec.dart', pubget(gulp, gulpPlugins, {
+// Run a top-level `pub get` for this project.
+gulp.task('pubget.dart', pubget.dir(gulp, gulpPlugins, { dir: '.', command: DART_SDK.PUB }));
+
+// Run `pub get` over CONFIG.dest.dart
+gulp.task('build/pubspec.dart', pubget.subDir(gulp, gulpPlugins, {
   dir: CONFIG.dest.dart,
   command: DART_SDK.PUB
 }));
@@ -588,6 +594,22 @@ createDocsTasks(true);
 createDocsTasks(false);
 
 // ------------------
+// CI tests suites
+
+gulp.task('test.js', function(done) {
+  runSequence('test.transpiler.unittest', 'docs/test', 'test.unit.js/ci',
+              'test.unit.cjs/ci', done);
+});
+
+gulp.task('test.dart', function(done) {
+  runSequence('test.transpiler.unittest', 'docs/test', 'test.unit.dart/ci', done);
+});
+
+// Reuse the Travis scripts
+// TODO: rename test_*.sh to test_all_*.sh
+gulp.task('test.all.js', shell.task(['./scripts/ci/test_js.sh']))
+gulp.task('test.all.dart', shell.task(['./scripts/ci/test_dart.sh']))
+
 // karma tests
 //     These tests run in the browser and are allowed to access
 //     HTML DOM APIs.
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 8ff50024c9..c879ede3f4 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -20,10 +20,8 @@
     "url": "https://github.com/angular/angular.git"
   },
   "scripts": {
-    "test": "npm run test-js && npm run test-dart",
-    "test-js": "./scripts/ci/test_js.sh",
-    "test-dart": "./scripts/ci/test_dart.sh",
-    "postinstall": "./node_modules/.bin/bower install"
+    "postinstall": "webdriver-manager update && bower install && gulp pubget.dart",
+    "test": "gulp test.all.js && gulp test.all.dart"
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "es6-module-loader": "^0.9.2",
diff --git a/scripts/ci/env_dart.sh b/scripts/ci/env_dart.sh
index 2e20033502..4b0e69c1a1 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/env_dart.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/env_dart.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/false
+#!/bin/bash
 set -e -o pipefail
 
 if [[ -z $ENV_SET ]]; then
@@ -95,4 +95,4 @@ if [[ -z $ENV_SET ]]; then
   echo NGDART_SCRIPT_DIR=$NGDART_SCRIPT_DIR
   $DART --version 2>&1
 
-fi
\ No newline at end of file
+fi
diff --git a/scripts/ci/test_dart.sh b/scripts/ci/test_dart.sh
index bc481d60e6..29a4ced4e3 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/test_dart.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/test_dart.sh
@@ -4,8 +4,9 @@ set -e
 echo =============================================================================
 # go to project dir
 SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname $0)
+source $SCRIPT_DIR/env_dart.sh
 cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../..
 
-${SCRIPT_DIR}/test_unit_dart.sh
+./node_modules/.bin/gulp test.js --browsers=$KARMA_BROWSERS
 ${SCRIPT_DIR}/test_server_dart.sh
 ${SCRIPT_DIR}/test_e2e_dart.sh
diff --git a/scripts/ci/test_e2e_dart.sh b/scripts/ci/test_e2e_dart.sh
index 4d7e97ef8f..a13edd25cb 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/test_e2e_dart.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/test_e2e_dart.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ set -e
 echo =============================================================================
 # go to project dir
 SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname $0)
-source $SCRIPT_DIR/env_dart.sh
 cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../..
 
 ./node_modules/.bin/webdriver-manager update
diff --git a/scripts/ci/test_e2e_js.sh b/scripts/ci/test_e2e_js.sh
index 53928a2974..f4cb0a0331 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/test_e2e_js.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/test_e2e_js.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ set -e
 echo =============================================================================
 # go to project dir
 SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname $0)
-source $SCRIPT_DIR/env_dart.sh
 cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../..
 
 ./node_modules/.bin/webdriver-manager update
@@ -21,4 +20,10 @@ trap killServer EXIT
 # wait for server to come up!
 sleep 10
 
-./node_modules/.bin/protractor protractor-js.conf.js --browsers=${E2E_BROWSERS:-Dartium}
+# Let protractor use default browser unless one is specified.
+OPTIONS="";
+if [[ -n "$E2E_BROWSERS" ]]; then
+  OPTIONS="--browsers=$E2E_BROWSERS";
+fi
+
+./node_modules/.bin/protractor protractor-js.conf.js $OPTIONS
diff --git a/scripts/ci/test_js.sh b/scripts/ci/test_js.sh
index 5ec3a5a043..5cd966bfc3 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/test_js.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/test_js.sh
@@ -6,6 +6,11 @@ echo ===========================================================================
 SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname $0)
 cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../..
 
-${SCRIPT_DIR}/test_unit_js.sh
-# ${SCRIPT_DIR}/test_server_js.sh # JS doesn't yet have server tests
+# Issue #945 Travis still uses Dartium, and hence needs the env setup.
+# For local tests, when a developer doesn't have Dart, don't source env_dart.sh
+if  ${SCRIPT_DIR}/env_dart.sh 2>&1 > /dev/null ; then
+    source $SCRIPT_DIR/env_dart.sh
+fi
+
+./node_modules/.bin/gulp test.js --browsers=${KARMA_BROWSERS:-ChromeCanary}
 ${SCRIPT_DIR}/test_e2e_js.sh
diff --git a/scripts/ci/test_server_dart.sh b/scripts/ci/test_server_dart.sh
index 7d1d2bea28..6bb7e2e028 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/test_server_dart.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/test_server_dart.sh
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ set -e
 echo =============================================================================
 # go to project dir
 SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname $0)
-source $SCRIPT_DIR/env_dart.sh
 cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../..
 
 ./node_modules/.bin/webdriver-manager update
diff --git a/scripts/ci/test_unit_dart.sh b/scripts/ci/test_unit_dart.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 1cedbeb980..0000000000
--- a/scripts/ci/test_unit_dart.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-set -e
-
-echo =============================================================================
-# go to project dir
-SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname $0)
-source $SCRIPT_DIR/env_dart.sh
-cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../..
-
-./node_modules/.bin/gulp test.transpiler.unittest
-./node_modules/.bin/gulp test.unit.dart/ci --browsers=$KARMA_BROWSERS
diff --git a/scripts/ci/test_unit_js.sh b/scripts/ci/test_unit_js.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 5ea4eee013..0000000000
--- a/scripts/ci/test_unit_js.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-set -e
-
-echo =============================================================================
-# go to project dir
-SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname $0)
-source $SCRIPT_DIR/env_dart.sh
-cd $SCRIPT_DIR/../..
-
-./node_modules/.bin/gulp test.transpiler.unittest
-./node_modules/.bin/gulp docs/test
-./node_modules/.bin/gulp test.unit.js/ci --browsers=$KARMA_BROWSERS
-./node_modules/.bin/gulp test.unit.cjs/ci
diff --git a/tools/build/pubget.js b/tools/build/pubget.js
index eb4b272057..d0f1123508 100644
--- a/tools/build/pubget.js
+++ b/tools/build/pubget.js
@@ -2,7 +2,21 @@ var util = require('./util');
 var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
 var path = require('path');
 
-module.exports = function(gulp, plugins, config) {
+module.exports = {
+  dir: pubGetDir,
+  subDir: pubGetSubDir
+};
+
+function pubGetDir(gulp, plugins, config) {
+  return function() {
+    return util.processToPromise(spawn(config.command, ['get'], {
+      stdio: 'inherit',
+      cwd: config.dir
+    }));
+  };
+};
+
+function pubGetSubDir(gulp, plugins, config) {
   return function() {
     // We need to execute pubspec serially as otherwise we can get into trouble
     // with the pub cache...
@@ -14,4 +28,3 @@ module.exports = function(gulp, plugins, config) {
     });
   };
 };
-