diff --git a/.github/workflows/build.yml b/.github/workflows/build.yml
index 136d0293da..aad4adacdb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build.yml
@@ -41,12 +41,13 @@ jobs:
           python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
       - name: Install system dependencies
         run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg libturbojpeg
-      - name: Install unittest dependencies
-        run: pip install -r requirements/test.txt
       - name: Build and install
         run: rm -rf .eggs && pip install -e .
+      - name: Validate the installation
+        run: python -c "import mmcv"
       - name: Run unittests and generate coverage report
         run: |
+          pip install -r requirements/test.txt
           pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/test_runner --ignore=tests/test_optimizer.py --ignore=tests/test_cnn --ignore=tests/test_parallel.py --ignore=tests/test_ops --ignore=tests/test_load_model_zoo.py --ignore=tests/test_utils/test_logging.py --ignore=tests/test_image/test_io.py --ignore=tests/test_utils/test_registry.py --ignore=tests/test_utils/test_parrots_jit.py
 
   build_without_ops:
@@ -70,12 +71,14 @@ jobs:
         run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg libturbojpeg
       - name: Install PyTorch
         run: pip install torch==${{matrix.torch}}+cpu torchvision==${{matrix.torchvision}}+cpu -f https://download.pytorch.org/whl/torch_stable.html
-      - name: Install unittest dependencies
-        run: pip install -r requirements/test.txt
       - name: Build and install
         run: rm -rf .eggs && pip install -e .
+      - name: Validate the installation
+        run: python -c "import mmcv"
       - name: Run unittests
-        run: pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/test_ops
+        run: |
+          pip install -r requirements/test.txt
+          pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/test_ops
 
   build_cpu:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
@@ -107,12 +110,13 @@ jobs:
         if: ${{matrix.torchvision == '0.4.2'}}
       - name: Install PyTorch
         run: pip install torch==${{matrix.torch}}+cpu torchvision==${{matrix.torchvision}}+cpu -f https://download.pytorch.org/whl/torch_stable.html
-      - name: Install unittest dependencies
-        run: pip install -r requirements/test.txt
       - name: Build and install
         run: rm -rf .eggs && pip install -e .
+      - name: Validate the installation
+        run: python -c "import mmcv"
       - name: Run unittests and generate coverage report
         run: |
+          pip install -r requirements/test.txt
           coverage run --branch --source=mmcv -m pytest tests/
           coverage xml
           coverage report -m
@@ -174,12 +178,13 @@ jobs:
         run: pip install torch==${{matrix.torch}} torchvision==${{matrix.torchvision}} -f https://download.pytorch.org/whl/torch_stable.html
       - name: Install system dependencies
         run: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y ffmpeg libturbojpeg
-      - name: Install unittest dependencies
-        run: pip install -r requirements/test.txt
       - name: Build and install
         run: rm -rf .eggs && pip install -e .
+      - name: Validate the installation
+        run: python -c "import mmcv"
       - name: Run unittests and generate coverage report
         run: |
+          pip install -r requirements/test.txt
           coverage run --branch --source=mmcv -m pytest tests/ --ignore=tests/test_ops/test_onnx.py
           coverage xml
           coverage report -m
@@ -216,8 +221,6 @@ jobs:
           python-version: 3.7
       - name: Install system dependencies
         run: brew install ffmpeg jpeg-turbo
-      - name: Install unittest dependencies
-        run: pip install -r requirements/test.txt
       - name: Install Pillow
         run: pip install Pillow==6.2.2
         if: ${{matrix.torchvision == '0.4.2'}}
@@ -227,7 +230,10 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           rm -rf .eggs
           CC=clang CXX=clang++ CFLAGS='-stdlib=libc++' pip install -e .
+      - name: Validate the installation
+        run: python -c "import mmcv"
       - name: Run unittests
         run: |
+          pip install -r requirements/test.txt
           # The timing on macos VMs is not precise, so we skip the progressbar tests
           pytest tests/ --ignore tests/test_utils/test_progressbar.py --ignore tests/test_utils/test_timer.py
diff --git a/mmcv/utils/__init__.py b/mmcv/utils/__init__.py
index b2f160d9af..4c10f888d3 100644
--- a/mmcv/utils/__init__.py
+++ b/mmcv/utils/__init__.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
         DataLoader, PoolDataLoader, SyncBatchNorm, _AdaptiveAvgPoolNd,
         _AdaptiveMaxPoolNd, _AvgPoolNd, _BatchNorm, _ConvNd,
         _ConvTransposeMixin, _InstanceNorm, _MaxPoolNd, get_build_config)
-    from .parrots_jit import jit, skip_no_elena, skip_no_parrots
+    from .parrots_jit import jit, skip_no_elena
     from .registry import Registry, build_from_cfg
     __all__ = [
         'Config', 'ConfigDict', 'DictAction', 'collect_env', 'get_logger',
@@ -49,6 +49,5 @@
         '_InstanceNorm', '_MaxPoolNd', 'get_build_config', 'BuildExtension',
         'CppExtension', 'CUDAExtension', 'DataLoader', 'PoolDataLoader',
         'TORCH_VERSION', 'deprecated_api_warning', 'digit_version',
-        'get_git_hash', 'import_modules_from_strings', 'jit', 'skip_no_elena',
-        'skip_no_parrots'
+        'get_git_hash', 'import_modules_from_strings', 'jit', 'skip_no_elena'
     ]
diff --git a/mmcv/utils/parrots_jit.py b/mmcv/utils/parrots_jit.py
index 552fc999eb..609c11acd0 100644
--- a/mmcv/utils/parrots_jit.py
+++ b/mmcv/utils/parrots_jit.py
@@ -1,7 +1,4 @@
-import pytest
-import torch
-
-TORCH_VERSION = torch.__version__
+from .parrots_wrapper import TORCH_VERSION
 
 if TORCH_VERSION == 'parrots':
     from parrots.jit import pat as jit
@@ -37,11 +34,3 @@ def wrapper(*args, **kargs):
             return func(*args, **kargs)
 
         return wrapper
-
-
-def is_using_parrots():
-    return TORCH_VERSION == 'parrots'
-
-
-skip_no_parrots = pytest.mark.skipif(
-    not is_using_parrots(), reason='test case under parrots environment')
diff --git a/tests/test_utils/test_parrots_jit.py b/tests/test_utils/test_parrots_jit.py
index 66c85e4298..78f8b9f602 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils/test_parrots_jit.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils/test_parrots_jit.py
@@ -2,6 +2,10 @@
 import torch
 
 import mmcv
+from mmcv.utils import TORCH_VERSION
+
+skip_no_parrots = pytest.mark.skipif(
+    TORCH_VERSION != 'parrots', reason='test case under parrots environment')
 
 
 class TestJit(object):
@@ -55,7 +59,7 @@ def add_list_pyfunc(oper, x, y):
             assert f'k{idx}' in rets_t
             assert (rets[f'k{idx}'] == rets_t[f'k{idx}']).all()
 
-    @mmcv.skip_no_parrots
+    @skip_no_parrots
     def test_jit_cache(self):
 
         @mmcv.jit
@@ -88,7 +92,7 @@ def pyfunc(oper):
         rets_a = (rets_minus_t + rets_plus_t) / 4
         assert torch.allclose(oper['x'], rets_a)
 
-    @mmcv.skip_no_parrots
+    @skip_no_parrots
     def test_jit_shape(self):
 
         @mmcv.jit
@@ -109,7 +113,7 @@ def func(a):
         assert (r == 2).all()
         assert len(func._cache._cache) == 2
 
-    @mmcv.skip_no_parrots
+    @skip_no_parrots
     def test_jit_kwargs(self):
 
         @mmcv.jit
@@ -206,7 +210,7 @@ def pyfunc(a, b):
         d = pyfunc(a, b)
         assert torch.allclose(c, d)
 
-    @mmcv.skip_no_parrots
+    @skip_no_parrots
     def test_jit_check_input(self):
 
         def func(x):
@@ -217,7 +221,7 @@ def func(x):
         with pytest.raises(AssertionError):
             func = mmcv.jit(func, check_input=(a, ))
 
-    @mmcv.skip_no_parrots
+    @skip_no_parrots
     def test_jit_partial_shape(self):
 
         @mmcv.jit(full_shape=False)