diff --git a/ci/code_checks.sh b/ci/code_checks.sh
index eba96f0c6c2fc..fac5c211cdad8 100755
--- a/ci/code_checks.sh
+++ b/ci/code_checks.sh
@@ -9,16 +9,19 @@
 # In the future we may want to add the validation of docstrings and other checks here.
 #
 # Usage:
-#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh             # run all checks
-#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh lint        # run linting only
-#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh patterns    # check for patterns that should not exist
-#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh doctests    # run doctests
+#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh               # run all checks
+#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh lint          # run linting only
+#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh patterns      # check for patterns that should not exist
+#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh doctests      # run doctests
+#   $ ./ci/code_checks.sh dependencies  # check that dependencies are consistent
 
 echo "inside $0"
 [[ $LINT ]] || { echo "NOT Linting. To lint use: LINT=true $0 $1"; exit 0; }
-[[ -z "$1" || "$1" == "lint" || "$1" == "patterns" || "$1" == "doctests" ]] || { echo "Unknown command $1. Usage: $0 [lint|patterns|doctests]"; exit 9999; }
+[[ -z "$1" || "$1" == "lint" || "$1" == "patterns" || "$1" == "doctests" || "$1" == "dependencies"  ]] \
+    || { echo "Unknown command $1. Usage: $0 [lint|patterns|doctests|dependencies]"; exit 9999; }
 
 source activate pandas
+BASE_DIR="$(dirname $0)/.."
 RET=0
 CHECK=$1
 
@@ -172,4 +175,11 @@ if [[ -z "$CHECK" || "$CHECK" == "doctests" ]]; then
 
 fi
 
+### DEPENDENCIES ###
+if [[ -z "$CHECK" || "$CHECK" == "dependencies" ]]; then
+    MSG='Check that requirements-dev.txt has been generated from environment.yml' ; echo $MSG
+    $BASE_DIR/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py --compare
+    RET=$(($RET + $?)) ; echo $MSG "DONE"
+fi
+
 exit $RET
diff --git a/ci/environment-dev.yaml b/ci/environment-dev.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index 2718c1cd582b6..0000000000000
--- a/ci/environment-dev.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,20 +0,0 @@
-name: pandas-dev
-channels:
-  - defaults
-  - conda-forge
-dependencies:
-  - Cython>=0.28.2
-  - NumPy
-  - flake8
-  - flake8-comprehensions
-  - flake8-rst
-  - hypothesis>=3.58.0
-  - isort
-  - moto
-  - pytest>=3.6
-  - python-dateutil>=2.5.0
-  - python=3
-  - pytz
-  - setuptools>=24.2.0
-  - sphinx
-  - sphinxcontrib-spelling
diff --git a/ci/requirements-optional-conda.txt b/ci/requirements-optional-conda.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 8758c8154abca..0000000000000
--- a/ci/requirements-optional-conda.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,28 +0,0 @@
-beautifulsoup4>=4.2.1
-blosc
-bottleneck>=1.2.0
-fastparquet>=0.1.2
-gcsfs
-html5lib
-ipython>=5.6.0
-ipykernel
-jinja2
-lxml
-matplotlib>=2.0.0
-nbsphinx
-numexpr>=2.6.1
-openpyxl
-pyarrow>=0.7.0
-pymysql
-pytables>=3.4.2
-pytest-cov
-pytest-xdist
-s3fs
-scipy>=0.18.1
-seaborn
-sqlalchemy
-statsmodels
-xarray
-xlrd
-xlsxwriter
-xlwt
diff --git a/ci/requirements_dev.txt b/ci/requirements_dev.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index a1cb20c265974..0000000000000
--- a/ci/requirements_dev.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-# This file was autogenerated by scripts/convert_deps.py
-# Do not modify directly
-Cython>=0.28.2
-NumPy
-flake8
-flake8-comprehensions
-flake8-rst
-hypothesis>=3.58.0
-isort
-moto
-pytest>=3.6
-python-dateutil>=2.5.0
-pytz
-setuptools>=24.2.0
-sphinx
-sphinxcontrib-spelling
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/doc/source/contributing.rst b/doc/source/contributing.rst
index 084f710091a1b..514a58456bcd9 100644
--- a/doc/source/contributing.rst
+++ b/doc/source/contributing.rst
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ We'll now kick off a three-step process:
 .. code-block:: none
 
    # Create and activate the build environment
-   conda env create -f ci/environment-dev.yaml
+   conda env create -f environment.yml
    conda activate pandas-dev
 
    # or with older versions of Anaconda:
@@ -180,9 +180,6 @@ We'll now kick off a three-step process:
    python setup.py build_ext --inplace -j 4
    python -m pip install -e .
 
-   # Install the rest of the optional dependencies
-   conda install -c defaults -c conda-forge --file=ci/requirements-optional-conda.txt
-
 At this point you should be able to import pandas from your locally built version::
 
    $ python  # start an interpreter
@@ -221,14 +218,12 @@ You'll need to have at least python3.5 installed on your system.
    . ~/virtualenvs/pandas-dev/bin/activate
 
    # Install the build dependencies
-   python -m pip install -r ci/requirements_dev.txt
+   python -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
+
    # Build and install pandas
    python setup.py build_ext --inplace -j 4
    python -m pip install -e .
 
-   # Install additional dependencies
-   python -m pip install -r ci/requirements-optional-pip.txt
-
 Creating a branch
 -----------------
 
diff --git a/environment.yml b/environment.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..f66625e6a60c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/environment.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+name: pandas-dev
+channels:
+  - defaults
+  - conda-forge
+dependencies:
+  # required
+  - NumPy
+  - python=3
+  - python-dateutil>=2.5.0
+  - pytz
+
+  # development
+  - Cython>=0.28.2
+  - flake8
+  - flake8-comprehensions
+  - flake8-rst
+  - hypothesis>=3.58.0
+  - isort
+  - moto
+  - pytest>=3.6
+  - setuptools>=24.2.0
+  - sphinx
+  - sphinxcontrib-spelling
+
+  # optional
+  - beautifulsoup4>=4.2.1
+  - blosc
+  - bottleneck>=1.2.0
+  - fastparquet>=0.1.2
+  - gcsfs
+  - html5lib
+  - ipython>=5.6.0
+  - ipykernel
+  - jinja2
+  - lxml
+  - matplotlib>=2.0.0
+  - nbsphinx
+  - numexpr>=2.6.1
+  - openpyxl
+  - pyarrow>=0.7.0
+  - pymysql
+  - pytables>=3.4.2
+  - pytest-cov
+  - pytest-xdist
+  - s3fs
+  - scipy>=0.18.1
+  - seaborn
+  - sqlalchemy
+  - statsmodels
+  - xarray
+  - xlrd
+  - xlsxwriter
+  - xlwt
diff --git a/ci/requirements-optional-pip.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
similarity index 63%
rename from ci/requirements-optional-pip.txt
rename to requirements-dev.txt
index 62f1c555d8544..93145d948c218 100644
--- a/ci/requirements-optional-pip.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -1,5 +1,17 @@
-# This file was autogenerated by scripts/convert_deps.py
-# Do not modify directly
+NumPy
+python-dateutil>=2.5.0
+pytz
+Cython>=0.28.2
+flake8
+flake8-comprehensions
+flake8-rst
+hypothesis>=3.58.0
+isort
+moto
+pytest>=3.6
+setuptools>=24.2.0
+sphinx
+sphinxcontrib-spelling
 beautifulsoup4>=4.2.1
 blosc
 bottleneck>=1.2.0
diff --git a/scripts/convert_deps.py b/scripts/convert_deps.py
deleted file mode 100755
index 3ff157e0a0d7b..0000000000000
--- a/scripts/convert_deps.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,31 +0,0 @@
-"""
-Convert the conda environment.yaml to a pip requirements.txt
-"""
-import re
-import yaml
-
-exclude = {'python=3'}
-rename = {'pytables': 'tables'}
-
-with open("ci/environment-dev.yaml") as f:
-    dev = yaml.load(f)
-
-with open("ci/requirements-optional-conda.txt") as f:
-    optional = [x.strip() for x in f.readlines()]
-
-required = dev['dependencies']
-required = [rename.get(dep, dep) for dep in required if dep not in exclude]
-optional = [rename.get(dep, dep) for dep in optional if dep not in exclude]
-optional = [re.sub("(?<=[^<>])=", '==', dep) for dep in optional]
-
-
-with open("ci/requirements_dev.txt", 'wt') as f:
-    f.write("# This file was autogenerated by scripts/convert_deps.py\n")
-    f.write("# Do not modify directly\n")
-    f.write('\n'.join(required))
-
-
-with open("ci/requirements-optional-pip.txt", 'wt') as f:
-    f.write("# This file was autogenerated by scripts/convert_deps.py\n")
-    f.write("# Do not modify directly\n")
-    f.write("\n".join(optional))
diff --git a/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py b/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..2474214a4a53b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/generate_pip_deps_from_conda.py
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+"""
+Convert the conda environment.yml to the pip requirements-dev.txt,
+or check that they have the same packages (for the CI)
+
+Usage:
+
+    Generate `requirements-dev.txt`
+    $ ./conda_to_pip
+
+    Compare and fail (exit status != 0) if `requirements-dev.txt` has not been
+    generated with this script:
+    $ ./conda_to_pip --compare
+"""
+import argparse
+import os
+import re
+import sys
+import yaml
+
+
+EXCLUDE = {'python=3'}
+RENAME = {'pytables': 'tables'}
+
+
+def conda_package_to_pip(package):
+    """
+    Convert a conda package to its pip equivalent.
+
+    In most cases they are the same, those are the exceptions:
+    - Packages that should be excluded (in `EXCLUDE`)
+    - Packages that should be renamed (in `RENAME`)
+    - A package requiring a specific version, in conda is defined with a single
+      equal (e.g. ``pandas=1.0``) and in pip with two (e.g. ``pandas==1.0``)
+    """
+    if package in EXCLUDE:
+        return
+
+    if package in RENAME:
+        return RENAME[package]
+
+    return re.sub('(?<=[^<>])=', '==', package).strip()
+
+
+def main(conda_fname, pip_fname, compare=False):
+    """
+    Generate the pip dependencies file from the conda file, or compare that
+    they are synchronized (``compare=True``).
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    conda_fname : str
+        Path to the conda file with dependencies (e.g. `environment.yml`).
+    pip_fname : str
+        Path to the pip file with dependencies (e.g. `requirements-dev.txt`).
+    compare : bool, default False
+        Whether to generate the pip file (``False``) or to compare if the
+        pip file has been generated with this script and the last version
+        of the conda file (``True``).
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    bool
+        True if the comparison fails, False otherwise
+    """
+    with open(conda_fname) as conda_fd:
+        deps = yaml.safe_load(conda_fd)['dependencies']
+
+    pip_content = '\n'.join(filter(None, map(conda_package_to_pip, deps)))
+
+    if compare:
+        with open(pip_fname) as pip_fd:
+            return pip_content != pip_fd.read()
+    else:
+        with open(pip_fname, 'w') as pip_fd:
+            pip_fd.write(pip_content)
+        return False
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    argparser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description='convert (or compare) conda file to pip')
+    argparser.add_argument('--compare',
+                           action='store_true',
+                           help='compare whether the two files are equivalent')
+    args = argparser.parse_args()
+
+    repo_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__)))
+    res = main(os.path.join(repo_path, 'environment.yml'),
+               os.path.join(repo_path, 'requirements-dev.txt'),
+               compare=args.compare)
+    if res:
+        sys.stderr.write('`requirements-dev.txt` has to be generated with '
+                         '`{}` after `environment.yml` is modified.\n'.format(
+                             sys.argv[0]))
+    sys.exit(res)