diff --git a/docker/compile/Dockerfile.centos7 b/docker/compile/Dockerfile.centos7
index 3865b5b..3eda6c4 100644
--- a/docker/compile/Dockerfile.centos7
+++ b/docker/compile/Dockerfile.centos7
@@ -41,9 +41,9 @@
       zip \
       unzip \
       wget \
-      which
-
-RUN yum -y install java-1.8.0-openjdk java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel
+      which \
+      java-1.8.0-openjdk \
+      java-1.8.0-openjdk-devel
 
 ENV JAVA_HOME /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0
 
diff --git a/docker/compile/Dockerfile.ubuntu18.04 b/docker/compile/Dockerfile.ubuntu18.04
index 28b8f23..48a62ef 100644
--- a/docker/compile/Dockerfile.ubuntu18.04
+++ b/docker/compile/Dockerfile.ubuntu18.04
@@ -31,9 +31,11 @@
       python-dev \
       wget \
       zip \
-      unzip
-
-RUN apt-get -y install openjdk-8-jdk-headless
+      virtualenv \
+      unzip \
+      git \
+      curl \
+      openjdk-8-jdk-headless
 
 ENV JAVA_HOME /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64
 
diff --git a/docker/scripts/dev-env.sh b/docker/scripts/dev-env.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..17e37ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/scripts/dev-env.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+# or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+# distributed with this work for additional information
+# regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+# to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+# "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+# with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+# 
+#   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+# 
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+# software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+# "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+# KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+# specific language governing permissions and limitations
+# under the License.
+
+# This is a script to start a docker container that has all
+# tools needed to compire Heron. Developer should be able to
+# compile Heron in the container without any setup works.
+# usage:
+# To create a clean development environment with docker and run it,
+# execute the following scripts in the source directory of Heron:
+#   sh docker/scripts/dev-env.sh
+#
+# After the container is started, build Heron with bazel
+# (ubuntu config is used in the example):
+#   ./bazel_configure.py
+#   bazel build --config=ubuntu heron/...
+#
+# To enter an existing container with a new shell, find the container
+# id with this command:
+#   docker ps -a
+# And then :
+#   docker exec -it CONTAINER_ID bash
+
+set -o nounset
+set -o errexit
+
+# Default platform is ubuntu18.04. Other available platforms
+# include centos7, debian9
+TARGET_PLATFORM=${1:-"ubuntu18.04"}
+SCRATCH_DIR=${2:-"$HOME/.heron-docker"}
+REPOSITORY="heron-dev"
+
+
+realpath() {
+  echo "$(cd "$(dirname "$1")"; pwd)/$(basename "$1")"
+}
+
+DOCKER_DIR=$(dirname $(dirname $(realpath $0)))
+PROJECT_DIR=$(dirname $DOCKER_DIR)
+
+verify_dockerfile_exists() {
+  if [ ! -f $1 ]; then
+    echo "The Dockerfiler $1 does not exist"
+    exit 1
+  fi
+}
+
+dockerfile_path_for_platform() {
+  echo "$DOCKER_DIR/compile/Dockerfile.$1"
+}
+
+copy_extra_files() {
+  mkdir -p $SCRATCH_DIR/scripts
+  cp $PROJECT_DIR/tools/docker/bazel.rc $SCRATCH_DIR/bazelrc
+  cp $DOCKER_DIR/scripts/compile-docker.sh $SCRATCH_DIR/scripts/compile-platform.sh
+}
+
+DOCKER_FILE=$(dockerfile_path_for_platform $TARGET_PLATFORM)
+verify_dockerfile_exists $DOCKER_FILE
+copy_extra_files
+
+echo "Building docker image for Heron development environment on $TARGET_PLATFORM"
+docker build -t $REPOSITORY:$TARGET_PLATFORM -f $DOCKER_FILE $SCRATCH_DIR
+
+echo "Creating and starting container and mapping the current dir to /heron"
+docker container run -it \
+    -e TARGET_PLATFORM=$TARGET_PLATFORM \
+    -e SCRATCH_DIR="/scratch" \
+    -v $PROJECT_DIR:/heron \
+    -w "/heron" \
+    -p 8888:8888 \
+    -p 8889:8889 \
+    -t $REPOSITORY:$TARGET_PLATFORM bash