diff --git a/.github/workflows/run_unit_tests.yml b/.github/workflows/run_unit_tests.yml
index ac42522b..4a8b7295 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/run_unit_tests.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/run_unit_tests.yml
@@ -84,13 +84,10 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
         python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
+        python -m pip install -e .[dev]
     - name: List packages
       run:
         python -m pip list
-    - name: Install python3 kernelspecs
-      run: |
-        python -m pip install ipykernel
-        python -m ipykernel install --user
     - name: Run tests
       run: |
         if [ "$RUNNER_OS" != "Windows" ]; then
@@ -127,6 +124,7 @@ jobs:
       run: |
         python -m pip install --upgrade pip
         python -m pip install -r requirements.txt
+        python -m pip install -e .[dev]
     - name: List packages
       run:
         python -m pip list
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ecb7e6e0..cd68e934 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -36,21 +36,19 @@ To install the latest development version use the Git repository url:
 ## Building the documentation
 
 Source files for the documentation can be found in `docs/source` directory. In order to 
-build the HTML docs, you need to install the additional documentation building requirements
+build the HTML docs, you need to install the developer dependencies
 by running:
 
-    $ pip install -r dev-requirements.txt 
+    $ pip install -e .[dev]
 
 This installs Sphinx (among other things), which is required in building the documentation.
 When Sphinx is installed, you can build the HTML pages from the source files by running:
 
-    > docs\make.bat html
+    > bin\build_doc.bat
     
 or
 
-    $ pushd docs
-    $ make html
-    $ popd
+    $ bin/build_doc.py
     
 depending on your operating system.        
  
diff --git a/docs/requirements.txt b/docs/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index e42a014d..00000000
--- a/docs/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-# Requirements for compiling the documentation
-markupsafe < 2.1  # Jinja2<3.0 tries to import soft_unicode, which has been removed in markupsafe 2.1
-jinja2 < 3.0  # Dagster 0.12.8 requires Jinja2<3.0
-docutils < 0.17
-sphinx < 5.2
-sphinx_rtd_theme
-recommonmark
-astroid < 3.0  # sphinx-autoapi installs the latest astroid. We are not compatible with astroid v3.0
-sphinx-autoapi < 2.1  # 2.1 removed support for sphinx < 5.2.0
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index 80b15481..2fb6dc94 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -281,7 +281,10 @@ def setup(sphinx):
 # -- Options for intersphinx extension ---------------------------------------
 
 # Example configuration for intersphinx: refer to the Python standard library.
-intersphinx_mapping = {"https://docs.python.org/": None, "https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/13/": None}
+intersphinx_mapping = {
+    "python": ("https://docs.python.org/", None),
+    "sqlalchemy": ("https://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/13/", None)
+}
 
 # -- Options for todo extension ----------------------------------------------
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 3969813e..2b02e621 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -16,10 +16,8 @@ dependencies = [
     # v1.4 does not pass tests
     "sqlalchemy >=1.3, <1.4",
     "alembic >=1.7",
-    "faker >=8.1.2",
     "datapackage >=1.15.2",
     "python-dateutil >=2.8.1",
-    # v1.22 requires Python 3.8 or later
     "numpy >=1.20.2",
     "scipy >=1.7.1",
     "openpyxl >=3.0.7, !=3.1.1",
@@ -34,7 +32,15 @@ dependencies = [
 Repository = "https://github.com/spine-tools/Spine-Database-API"
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
-dev = ["coverage[toml]", "pyperf"]
+dev = [
+    "coverage[toml]",
+    "pyperf",
+    "sphinx",
+    "sphinx-autoapi",
+    "sphinx_rtd_theme",
+    "recommonmark",
+    "black == 21.12b0"
+]
 
 [build-system]
 requires = ["setuptools>=64", "setuptools_scm[toml]>=6.2", "wheel", "build"]
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index d6e1198b..00000000
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
--e .