diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index edcd7262d5c..1bb05fcd1a5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 ### Added
 
 - A new command [`operator-sdk print-deps`](https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/blob/master/doc/sdk-cli-reference.md#print-deps) which prints Golang packages and versions expected by the current Operator SDK version. Supplying `--as-file` prints packages and versions in Gopkg.toml format. ([#772](https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/pull/772))
+- Add [`no-setup`](https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/blob/master/doc/sdk-cli-reference.md#flags-9) flag to `test local` subcommand ([#770](https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/pull/770))
 - Add [`image`](https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/blob/master/doc/sdk-cli-reference.md#flags-9) flag to `test local` subcommand ([#768](https://github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk/pull/768))
 
 ### Bug fixes
diff --git a/commands/operator-sdk/cmd/test/local.go b/commands/operator-sdk/cmd/test/local.go
index d1568b8f55a..1ed24c06e87 100644
--- a/commands/operator-sdk/cmd/test/local.go
+++ b/commands/operator-sdk/cmd/test/local.go
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ type testLocalConfig struct {
 	namespacedManPath string
 	goTestFlags       string
 	namespace         string
+	noSetup           bool
 	image             string
 }
 
@@ -61,6 +62,7 @@ func NewTestLocalCmd() *cobra.Command {
 	testCmd.Flags().StringVar(&tlConfig.namespacedManPath, "namespaced-manifest", "", "Path to manifest for per-test, namespaced resources (e.g. RBAC and Operator manifest)")
 	testCmd.Flags().StringVar(&tlConfig.goTestFlags, "go-test-flags", "", "Additional flags to pass to go test")
 	testCmd.Flags().StringVar(&tlConfig.namespace, "namespace", "", "If non-empty, single namespace to run tests in")
+	testCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&tlConfig.noSetup, "no-setup", false, "Disable test resource creation")
 	testCmd.Flags().StringVar(&tlConfig.image, "image", "", "Use a different operator image from the one specified in the namespaced manifest")
 
 	return testCmd
@@ -70,11 +72,14 @@ func testLocalFunc(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 	if len(args) != 1 {
 		log.Fatal("operator-sdk test local requires exactly 1 argument")
 	}
+	if (tlConfig.noSetup && tlConfig.globalManPath != "") || (tlConfig.noSetup && tlConfig.namespacedManPath != "") {
+		log.Fatal("the global-manifest and namespaced-manifest flags cannot be enabled at the same time as the no-setup flag")
+	}
 
 	log.Info("Testing operator locally.")
 
 	// if no namespaced manifest path is given, combine deploy/service_account.yaml, deploy/role.yaml, deploy/role_binding.yaml and deploy/operator.yaml
-	if tlConfig.namespacedManPath == "" {
+	if tlConfig.namespacedManPath == "" && !tlConfig.noSetup {
 		err := os.MkdirAll(deployTestDir, os.FileMode(fileutil.DefaultDirFileMode))
 		if err != nil {
 			log.Fatalf("could not create %s: (%v)", deployTestDir, err)
@@ -113,7 +118,7 @@ func testLocalFunc(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 			}
 		}()
 	}
-	if tlConfig.globalManPath == "" {
+	if tlConfig.globalManPath == "" && !tlConfig.noSetup {
 		err := os.MkdirAll(deployTestDir, os.FileMode(fileutil.DefaultDirFileMode))
 		if err != nil {
 			log.Fatalf("could not create %s: (%v)", deployTestDir, err)
@@ -149,6 +154,25 @@ func testLocalFunc(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 			}
 		}()
 	}
+	if tlConfig.noSetup {
+		err := os.MkdirAll(deployTestDir, os.FileMode(fileutil.DefaultDirFileMode))
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Fatalf("could not create %s: (%v)", deployTestDir, err)
+		}
+		tlConfig.namespacedManPath = filepath.Join(deployTestDir, "empty.yaml")
+		tlConfig.globalManPath = filepath.Join(deployTestDir, "empty.yaml")
+		emptyBytes := []byte{}
+		err = ioutil.WriteFile(tlConfig.globalManPath, emptyBytes, os.FileMode(fileutil.DefaultFileMode))
+		if err != nil {
+			log.Fatalf("could not create empty manifest file: (%v)", err)
+		}
+		defer func() {
+			err := os.Remove(tlConfig.globalManPath)
+			if err != nil {
+				log.Fatalf("could not delete empty manifest file: (%v)", err)
+			}
+		}()
+	}
 	if tlConfig.image != "" {
 		if err := replaceImage(tlConfig.namespacedManPath, tlConfig.image); err != nil {
 			log.Fatalf("failed to overwrite operator image in the namespaced manifest: %v", err)
@@ -164,7 +188,7 @@ func testLocalFunc(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) {
 	if tlConfig.goTestFlags != "" {
 		testArgs = append(testArgs, strings.Split(tlConfig.goTestFlags, " ")...)
 	}
-	if tlConfig.namespace != "" {
+	if tlConfig.namespace != "" || tlConfig.noSetup {
 		testArgs = append(testArgs, "-"+test.SingleNamespaceFlag, "-parallel=1")
 	}
 	dc := exec.Command("go", testArgs...)
diff --git a/doc/sdk-cli-reference.md b/doc/sdk-cli-reference.md
index bdcd87d76c1..e53dcb3ac1e 100644
--- a/doc/sdk-cli-reference.md
+++ b/doc/sdk-cli-reference.md
@@ -257,6 +257,7 @@ Runs the tests locally
 * `--namespaced-manifest` string - path to manifest for per-test, namespaced resources (default: combines deploy/service_account.yaml, deploy/rbac.yaml, and deploy/operator.yaml)
 *  `--namespace` string - if non-empty, single namespace to run tests in (e.g. "operator-test") (default: "")
 * `--go-test-flags` string - extra arguments to pass to `go test` (e.g. -f "-v -parallel=2")
+* `--no-setup` bool - disable test resource creation
 * `--image` string - use a different operator image from the one specified in the namespaced manifest
 * `-h, --help` - help for local
 
diff --git a/doc/test-framework/writing-e2e-tests.md b/doc/test-framework/writing-e2e-tests.md
index b54b92eab42..da32d6c5f73 100644
--- a/doc/test-framework/writing-e2e-tests.md
+++ b/doc/test-framework/writing-e2e-tests.md
@@ -250,6 +250,17 @@ $ kubectl create namespace operator-test
 $ operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --namespace operator-test
 ```
 
+If you would prefer to create the resources yourself and skip resource creation, you can use the `--no-setup` flag:
+```shell
+$ kubectl create namespace operator-test
+$ kubectl create -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_crd.yaml
+$ kubectl create -f deploy/service_account.yaml --namespace operator-test
+$ kubectl create -f deploy/role.yaml --namespace operator-test
+$ kubectl create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml --namespace operator-test
+$ kubectl create -f deploy/operator.yaml --namespace operator-test
+$ operator-sdk test local ./test/e2e --namespace operator-test --no-setup
+```
+
 For more documentation on the `operator-sdk test local` command, see the [SDK CLI Reference][sdk-cli-ref] doc.
 
 For advanced use cases, it is possible to run the tests via `go test` directly. As long as all flags defined
diff --git a/hack/lib/test_lib.sh b/hack/lib/test_lib.sh
index 6dae39ccb80..b989f75bfec 100644
--- a/hack/lib/test_lib.sh
+++ b/hack/lib/test_lib.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
 function listPkgs() {
 	go list ./commands/... ./pkg/... ./test/... | grep -v generated
 }
@@ -13,3 +15,34 @@ function listFiles() {
 	# pipeline is much faster than for loop
 	listPkgs | xargs -I {} find "${GOPATH}/src/{}" -name '*.go' | grep -v generated
 }
+
+#===================================================================
+# FUNCTION trap_add ()
+#
+# Purpose:  prepends a command to a trap
+#
+# - 1st arg:  code to add
+# - remaining args:  names of traps to modify
+#
+# Example:  trap_add 'echo "in trap DEBUG"' DEBUG
+#
+# See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3338030/multiple-bash-traps-for-the-same-signal
+#===================================================================
+function trap_add() {
+    trap_add_cmd=$1; shift || fatal "${FUNCNAME} usage error"
+    new_cmd=
+    for trap_add_name in "$@"; do
+        # Grab the currently defined trap commands for this trap
+        existing_cmd=`trap -p "${trap_add_name}" |  awk -F"'" '{print $2}'`
+
+        # Define default command
+        [ -z "${existing_cmd}" ] && existing_cmd="echo exiting @ `date`"
+
+        # Generate the new command
+        new_cmd="${trap_add_cmd};${existing_cmd}"
+
+        # Assign the test
+         trap   "${new_cmd}" "${trap_add_name}" || \
+                fatal "unable to add to trap ${trap_add_name}"
+    done
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/hack/tests/e2e-ansible.sh b/hack/tests/e2e-ansible.sh
index 31ddda0c6e7..90fa1261ceb 100755
--- a/hack/tests/e2e-ansible.sh
+++ b/hack/tests/e2e-ansible.sh
@@ -1,35 +1,6 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 
-#===================================================================
-# FUNCTION trap_add ()
-#
-# Purpose:  prepends a command to a trap
-#
-# - 1st arg:  code to add
-# - remaining args:  names of traps to modify
-#
-# Example:  trap_add 'echo "in trap DEBUG"' DEBUG
-#
-# See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3338030/multiple-bash-traps-for-the-same-signal
-#===================================================================
-trap_add() {
-    trap_add_cmd=$1; shift || fatal "${FUNCNAME} usage error"
-    new_cmd=
-    for trap_add_name in "$@"; do
-        # Grab the currently defined trap commands for this trap
-        existing_cmd=`trap -p "${trap_add_name}" |  awk -F"'" '{print $2}'`
-
-        # Define default command
-        [ -z "${existing_cmd}" ] && existing_cmd="echo exiting @ `date`"
-
-        # Generate the new command
-        new_cmd="${trap_add_cmd};${existing_cmd}"
-
-        # Assign the test
-         trap   "${new_cmd}" "${trap_add_name}" || \
-                fatal "unable to add to trap ${trap_add_name}"
-    done
-}
+source hack/lib/test_lib.sh
 
 DEST_IMAGE="quay.io/example/memcached-operator:v0.0.2"
 
diff --git a/hack/tests/test-subcommand.sh b/hack/tests/test-subcommand.sh
index 6910c299866..83f65d71ba3 100755
--- a/hack/tests/test-subcommand.sh
+++ b/hack/tests/test-subcommand.sh
@@ -1,12 +1,28 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
+source hack/lib/test_lib.sh
+
 set -ex
 
-cd test/test-framework
+pushd test/test-framework
 # test framework with defaults
 operator-sdk test local .
 # test operator-sdk test flags
 operator-sdk test local . --global-manifest deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_crd.yaml --namespaced-manifest deploy/namespace-init.yaml --go-test-flags "-parallel 1" --kubeconfig $HOME/.kube/config --image=quay.io/coreos/operator-sdk-dev:test-framework-operator-runtime
 # test operator-sdk test local single namespace mode
 kubectl create namespace test-memcached
+# we use the test-memcached namespace for all future tests, so we only need to set this trap once
+trap_add 'kubectl delete namespace test-memcached || true' EXIT
 operator-sdk test local . --namespace=test-memcached
 kubectl delete namespace test-memcached
+# test operator in no-setup mode
+kubectl create namespace test-memcached
+kubectl create -f deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_crd.yaml
+# this runs after the popd at the end, so it needs the path from the project root
+trap_add 'kubectl delete -f test/test-framework/deploy/crds/cache_v1alpha1_memcached_crd.yaml' EXIT
+kubectl create -f deploy/service_account.yaml --namespace test-memcached
+kubectl create -f deploy/role.yaml --namespace test-memcached
+kubectl create -f deploy/role_binding.yaml --namespace test-memcached
+kubectl create -f deploy/operator.yaml --namespace test-memcached
+operator-sdk test local . --namespace=test-memcached --no-setup
+kubectl delete namespace test-memcached
+popd
diff --git a/pkg/test/framework.go b/pkg/test/framework.go
index e5c4473d50f..061ccba2399 100644
--- a/pkg/test/framework.go
+++ b/pkg/test/framework.go
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ type Framework struct {
 }
 
 func setup(kubeconfigPath, namespacedManPath *string) error {
+	namespace := ""
+	if *singleNamespace {
+		namespace = os.Getenv(TestNamespaceEnv)
+	}
 	var err error
 	var kubeconfig *rest.Config
 	if *kubeconfigPath == "incluster" {
@@ -73,8 +77,16 @@ func setup(kubeconfigPath, namespacedManPath *string) error {
 		}
 		kubeconfig, err = rest.InClusterConfig()
 		*singleNamespace = true
+		namespace = os.Getenv(TestNamespaceEnv)
+		if len(namespace) == 0 {
+			return fmt.Errorf("test namespace env not set")
+		}
 	} else {
-		kubeconfig, _, err = k8sInternal.GetKubeconfigAndNamespace(*kubeconfigPath)
+		var kcNamespace string
+		kubeconfig, kcNamespace, err = k8sInternal.GetKubeconfigAndNamespace(*kubeconfigPath)
+		if *singleNamespace && namespace == "" {
+			namespace = kcNamespace
+		}
 	}
 	if err != nil {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to build the kubeconfig: %v", err)
@@ -91,13 +103,6 @@ func setup(kubeconfigPath, namespacedManPath *string) error {
 		return fmt.Errorf("failed to build the dynamic client: %v", err)
 	}
 	dynamicDecoder = serializer.NewCodecFactory(scheme).UniversalDeserializer()
-	namespace := ""
-	if *singleNamespace {
-		namespace = os.Getenv(TestNamespaceEnv)
-		if len(namespace) == 0 {
-			return fmt.Errorf("namespace set in %s cannot be empty", TestNamespaceEnv)
-		}
-	}
 	Global = &Framework{
 		Client:            &frameworkClient{Client: dynClient},
 		KubeConfig:        kubeconfig,