diff --git a/swh/scheduler/celery_backend/runner.py b/swh/scheduler/celery_backend/runner.py
--- a/swh/scheduler/celery_backend/runner.py
+++ b/swh/scheduler/celery_backend/runner.py
@@ -3,8 +3,6 @@
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
-import time
-
 import arrow
 from celery import group
 
@@ -23,9 +21,23 @@
         backend (Scheduler): backend to read tasks to schedule
         app (App): Celery application to send tasks to
 
+    Returns:
+        A list of dictionaries:
+        {
+            'task': the scheduler's task id,
+            'backend_id': Celery's task id,
+            'scheduler': arrow.utcnow()
+        }
+
+    The result can be used to block-wait for the tasks' results:
+
+        backend_tasks = run_ready_tasks(self.scheduler, app)
+        for task in backend_tasks:
+            AsyncResult(id=task['backend_id']).get()
+
     """
+    all_backend_tasks = []
     while True:
-        throttled = False
         cursor = backend.cursor()
         task_types = {}
         pending_tasks = []
@@ -33,8 +45,8 @@
             task_type_name = task_type['type']
             task_types[task_type_name] = task_type
             max_queue_length = task_type['max_queue_length']
-            if max_queue_length:
-                backend_name = task_type['backend_name']
+            backend_name = task_type['backend_name']
+            if max_queue_length and backend_name in app.tasks:
                 queue_name = app.tasks[backend_name].task_queue
                 queue_length = app.get_queue_length(queue_name)
                 num_tasks = min(max_queue_length - queue_length,
@@ -53,7 +65,7 @@
                         cursor=cursor))
 
         if not pending_tasks:
-            break
+            return all_backend_tasks
 
         celery_tasks = []
         for task in pending_tasks:
@@ -78,8 +90,7 @@
 
         backend.commit()
 
-        if throttled:
-            time.sleep(10)
+        all_backend_tasks.extend(backend_tasks)
 
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
diff --git a/swh/scheduler/tests/scheduler_testing.py b/swh/scheduler/tests/scheduler_testing.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/scheduler/tests/scheduler_testing.py
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+import glob
+import pytest
+import os.path
+import datetime
+
+from celery.result import AsyncResult
+from celery.contrib.testing.worker import start_worker
+import celery.contrib.testing.tasks  # noqa           
+
+from swh.core.tests.db_testing import DbTestFixture, DB_DUMP_TYPES
+from swh.core.utils import numfile_sortkey as sortkey
+
+from swh.scheduler import get_scheduler
+from swh.scheduler.celery_backend.runner import run_ready_tasks
+from swh.scheduler.celery_backend.config import app
+from swh.scheduler.tests.celery_testing import CeleryTestFixture
+
+from . import SQL_DIR
+
+DUMP_FILES = os.path.join(SQL_DIR, '*.sql')
+
+
+@pytest.mark.db
+class SchedulerTestFixture(CeleryTestFixture, DbTestFixture):
+    """Base class for test case classes, providing an SWH scheduler as
+    the `scheduler` attribute."""
+    SCHEDULER_DB_NAME = 'softwareheritage-scheduler-test-fixture'
+
+    def add_scheduler_task_type(self, task_type, backend_name):
+        task_type = {
+            'type': task_type,
+            'description': 'Update a git repository',
+            'backend_name': backend_name,
+            'default_interval': datetime.timedelta(days=64),
+            'min_interval': datetime.timedelta(hours=12),
+            'max_interval': datetime.timedelta(days=64),
+            'backoff_factor': 2,
+            'max_queue_length': None,
+            'num_retries': 7,
+            'retry_delay': datetime.timedelta(hours=2),
+        }
+        self.scheduler.create_task_type(task_type)
+
+    def run_ready_tasks(self):
+        with start_worker(app):
+            backend_tasks = run_ready_tasks(self.scheduler, app)
+            for task in backend_tasks:
+                AsyncResult(id=task['backend_id']).get()
+
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        all_dump_files = sorted(glob.glob(DUMP_FILES), key=sortkey)
+
+        all_dump_files = [(x, DB_DUMP_TYPES[os.path.splitext(x)[1]])
+                          for x in all_dump_files]
+
+        cls.add_db(name=cls.SCHEDULER_DB_NAME,
+                   dumps=all_dump_files)
+        super().setUpClass()
+
+    def setUp(self):
+        super().setUp()
+        self.scheduler_config = {
+                'scheduling_db': 'dbname=' + self.SCHEDULER_DB_NAME}
+        self.scheduler = get_scheduler('local', self.scheduler_config)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self.scheduler.close_connection()
+        super().tearDown()
diff --git a/swh/scheduler/tests/test_fixtures.py b/swh/scheduler/tests/test_fixtures.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/scheduler/tests/test_fixtures.py
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2018  The Software Heritage developers
+# See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
+# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
+
+import datetime
+import unittest
+
+import celery
+
+from swh.scheduler.tests.scheduler_testing import SchedulerTestFixture
+
+task_has_run = False
+
+
+@celery.task
+def some_test_task(*, foo):
+    global task_has_run
+    assert foo == 'bar'
+    task_has_run = True
+
+
+class FixtureTest(SchedulerTestFixture, unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        super().setUp()
+        self.add_scheduler_task_type(
+            'some_test_task_type',
+            'swh.scheduler.tests.test_fixtures.some_test_task')
+
+    def test_task_run(self):
+        self.scheduler.create_tasks([{
+            'type': 'some_test_task_type',
+            'arguments': {
+                'args': [],
+                'kwargs': {
+                    'foo': 'bar'}},
+            'next_run': datetime.datetime.now(),
+            'retries_left': 5,
+            }])
+
+        self.assertEqual(task_has_run, False)
+        self.run_ready_tasks()
+        self.assertEqual(task_has_run, True)