diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 43269f1c..e8a8fabf 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 language: python
 python: 3.6
 
-install: "pip3 install flake8 mypy"
+install: "pip3 install flake8 mypy PyYAML"
 script:
   - flake8 src/ --ignore F821 --max-line-length=120
   - ./.travis/check_init_py.sh src/
   - MYPYPATH=$(pwd)/src mypy -p ja --no-strict-optional --strict
+  - MYPYPATH=$(pwd)/src mypy -p test --no-strict-optional --strict
+  - cd src && ./setup.py test
diff --git a/src/ja/common/message/base.py b/src/ja/common/message/base.py
index aacd9a9b..40be8d5a 100644
--- a/src/ja/common/message/base.py
+++ b/src/ja/common/message/base.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 """
 from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
 from typing import Dict
+import yaml
 
 
 class Serializable(ABC):
@@ -36,6 +37,9 @@ def __str__(self) -> str:
         """!
         @return A YAML document (string) representation of this object.
         """
+        as_yaml = yaml.dump(self.to_dict())
+        assert isinstance(as_yaml, str)
+        return as_yaml
 
     @classmethod
     def from_string(cls, yaml_string: str) -> "Serializable":
@@ -45,6 +49,9 @@ def from_string(cls, yaml_string: str) -> "Serializable":
         @return A new Serializable object based on the properties encoded in
         the YAML document.
         """
+        as_dict = yaml.load(yaml_string, Loader=yaml.SafeLoader)
+        assert isinstance(as_dict, dict)
+        return cls.from_dict(as_dict)
 
 
 class Message(Serializable, ABC):
diff --git a/src/setup.py b/src/setup.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..5262b6b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import unittest
+
+from setuptools import find_packages, setup
+
+
+def discover_ja_tests():
+    _tl = unittest.TestLoader()
+    _ts = _tl.discover('test', '*.py')
+    return _ts
+
+
+setup(
+    name='jobadder',
+    version="0.0.1",
+    description='JobAdder: a package for priority-based scheduling of Docker jobs to mwork machines',
+    long_description='',
+    author='Johannes Gäßler, ',  # TODO add everyone else
+    author_email='johannesg@5d6.de, ',  # TODO add everyone else
+    url='https://github.com/DistributedTaskScheduling/JobAdder',
+    packages=find_packages(),
+    package_data={},
+    scripts=[],
+    test_suite='setup.discover_ja_tests',
+    keywords=[],
+    license='GPL3',
+    install_requires=[],
+    classifiers=[],
+)
diff --git a/src/test/__init__.py b/src/test/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/src/test/serializable/__init__.py b/src/test/serializable/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/src/test/serializable/base.py b/src/test/serializable/base.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b2341db7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/test/serializable/base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+from ja.common.message.base import Serializable
+from typing import Dict
+from unittest import TestCase
+
+
+class SimpleSerializable(Serializable):
+    def __init__(self, x: int) -> None:
+        self.x = x
+
+    def to_dict(self) -> Dict[str, object]:
+        return {'x': self.x}
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_dict(cls, property_dict: Dict[str, object]) -> "SimpleSerializable":
+        assert len(property_dict) == 1
+        assert 'x' in property_dict
+        assert isinstance(property_dict['x'], int)
+        return SimpleSerializable(property_dict['x'])
+
+    def __eq__(self, other: object) -> bool:
+        if not isinstance(other, SimpleSerializable):
+            return False
+
+        return self.x == other.x
+
+
+class SerializableTest(TestCase):
+    def test_simple_serializable(self) -> None:
+        simple5 = SimpleSerializable(5)
+        self.assertEqual(simple5, SimpleSerializable.from_string(str(simple5)))
+
+        string_repr = 'x: 5'
+        self.assertEqual(SimpleSerializable.from_string(string_repr), simple5)