diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8c3a9d0f52a..ffa5f244dfd 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ docs/book/book/
 # skip bin
 bin/*
 testbin/*
+testdata/project-v3-addon/testbin/*
+testdata/project-v3-multigroup/testbin/*
+testdata/project-v3/testbin/*
 
 # skip .out files (coverage tests)
 *.out
diff --git a/docs/book/src/quick-start.md b/docs/book/src/quick-start.md
index b17d107706f..ffd207d94f4 100644
--- a/docs/book/src/quick-start.md
+++ b/docs/book/src/quick-start.md
@@ -25,7 +25,11 @@ arch=$(go env GOARCH)
 
 # download kubebuilder and extract it to tmp
 curl -L https://go.kubebuilder.io/dl/2.3.1/${os}/${arch} | tar -xz -C /tmp/
+```
+
+If you are using a Kubebuilder plugin version less than version `v3+`, you must configure the Kubernetes binaries required for the [envtest][envtest], run: 
 
+```bash
 # move to a long-term location and put it on your path
 # (you'll need to set the KUBEBUILDER_ASSETS env var if you put it somewhere else)
 sudo mv /tmp/kubebuilder_2.3.1_${os}_${arch} /usr/local/kubebuilder
@@ -37,7 +41,6 @@ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/kubebuilder/bin
 
 Also, you can install a master snapshot from `https://go.kubebuilder.io/dl/latest/${os}/${arch}`.
 
-
 </aside>
 
 <aside class="note">
@@ -225,8 +228,8 @@ make undeploy
 
 Now, follow up the [CronJob tutorial][cronjob-tutorial] to better understand how it works by developing a demo example project. 
 
-[pre-rbc-gke]:https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/role-based-access-control#iam-rolebinding-bootstrap
+[pre-rbc-gke]: https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/role-based-access-control#iam-rolebinding-bootstrap
 [cronjob-tutorial]: https://book.kubebuilder.io/cronjob-tutorial/cronjob-tutorial.html
 [GOPATH-golang-docs]: https://golang.org/doc/code.html#GOPATH
 [how-to-write-go-code-golang-docs]: https://golang.org/doc/code.html 
-
+[envtest]: https://book.kubebuilder.io/reference/testing/envtest.html
diff --git a/docs/book/src/reference/envtest.md b/docs/book/src/reference/envtest.md
index d656f91e316..dc958ebda67 100644
--- a/docs/book/src/reference/envtest.md
+++ b/docs/book/src/reference/envtest.md
@@ -24,8 +24,13 @@ err = testEnv.Stop()
 
 Logs from the test runs are prefixed with `test-env`.
 
-## Configuring your test control plane
-You can use environment variables and/or flags to specify the `api-server` and `etcd` setup within your integration tests.
+### Configuring your test control plane
+
+Controller-runtime’s [envtest](https://godoc.org/sigs.k8s.io/controller-runtime/pkg/envtest) framework requires `kubectl`, `kube-apiserver`, and `etcd` binaries be present locally to simulate the API portions of a real cluster. 
+
+For projects built with plugin v3+ (see your PROJECT file's `layout` key), the `make test` command will install these binaries to the `testbin/` directory and use them when running tests that use `envtest`.  
+
+You can use environment variables and/or flags to specify the `kubectl`,`api-server` and `etcd` setup within your integration tests.
 
 ### Environment Variables
 
@@ -37,6 +42,32 @@ You can use environment variables and/or flags to specify the `api-server` and `
 | `KUBEBUILDER_CONTROLPLANE_START_TIMEOUT` and `KUBEBUILDER_CONTROLPLANE_STOP_TIMEOUT` | durations in format supported by [`time.ParseDuration`](https://golang.org/pkg/time/#ParseDuration) | Specify timeouts different from the default for the test control plane to (respectively) start and stop; any test run that exceeds them will fail. |
 | `KUBEBUILDER_ATTACH_CONTROL_PLANE_OUTPUT` | boolean | Set to `true` to attach the control plane's stdout and stderr to os.Stdout and os.Stderr. This can be useful when debugging test failures, as output will include output from the control plane. |
 
+See that the `test` makefile target will ensure that all is properly setup when you are using it. However, if you would like to run the tests without use the Makefile targets, for example via an IDE, then you can set the environment variables directly in the code of your `suite_test.go`:
+
+```go 
+var _ = BeforeSuite(func(done Done) {
+	Expect(os.Setenv("TEST_ASSET_KUBE_APISERVER", "../testbin/bin/kube-apiserver")).To(Succeed())
+	Expect(os.Setenv("TEST_ASSET_ETCD", "../testbin/bin/etcd")).To(Succeed())
+	Expect(os.Setenv("TEST_ASSET_KUBECTL", "../testbin/bin/kubectl")).To(Succeed())
+
+	logf.SetLogger(zap.New(zap.WriteTo(GinkgoWriter), zap.UseDevMode(true)))
+	testenv = &envtest.Environment{}
+
+	_, err := testenv.Start()
+	Expect(err).NotTo(HaveOccurred())
+
+	close(done)
+}, 60)
+
+var _ = AfterSuite(func() {
+	Expect(testenv.Stop()).To(Succeed())
+
+	Expect(os.Unsetenv("TEST_ASSET_KUBE_APISERVER")).To(Succeed())
+	Expect(os.Unsetenv("TEST_ASSET_ETCD")).To(Succeed())
+	Expect(os.Unsetenv("TEST_ASSET_KUBECTL")).To(Succeed())
+
+})
+```  
 
 ### Flags
 Here's an example of modifying the flags with which to start the API server in your integration tests, compared to the default values in `envtest.DefaultKubeAPIServerFlags`:
diff --git a/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/init.go b/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/init.go
index 80163f84752..8253b816b1e 100644
--- a/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/init.go
+++ b/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/init.go
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ const (
 	ControllerToolsVersion = "v0.3.0"
 	// KustomizeVersion is the kubernetes-sigs/kustomize version to be used in the project
 	KustomizeVersion = "v3.5.4"
+	// todo: update the tag release when the next version of the project be released with this script
+	// ControllerRuntimeEnvTestVersion version to be used to download the envtest setup script
+	ControllerRuntimeEnvTestVersion = "master"
 
 	imageName = "controller:latest"
 )
@@ -108,10 +111,11 @@ func (s *initScaffolder) scaffold() error {
 		&templates.Main{},
 		&templates.GoMod{ControllerRuntimeVersion: ControllerRuntimeVersion},
 		&templates.Makefile{
-			Image:                  imageName,
-			BoilerplatePath:        s.boilerplatePath,
-			ControllerToolsVersion: ControllerToolsVersion,
-			KustomizeVersion:       KustomizeVersion,
+			Image:                           imageName,
+			BoilerplatePath:                 s.boilerplatePath,
+			ControllerToolsVersion:          ControllerToolsVersion,
+			KustomizeVersion:                KustomizeVersion,
+			ControllerRuntimeEnvTestVersion: ControllerRuntimeEnvTestVersion,
 		},
 		&templates.Dockerfile{},
 		&templates.DockerignoreFile{},
diff --git a/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/gitignore.go b/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/gitignore.go
index 3910f8d3195..d78ae478ee0 100644
--- a/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/gitignore.go
+++ b/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/gitignore.go
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ const gitignoreTemplate = `
 *.so
 *.dylib
 bin
+testbin/*
 
 # Test binary, build with ` + "`go test -c`" + `
 *.test
diff --git a/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/makefile.go b/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/makefile.go
index ae4e140ed00..34a657aa99a 100644
--- a/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/makefile.go
+++ b/pkg/plugin/v3/scaffolds/internal/templates/makefile.go
@@ -32,8 +32,10 @@ type Makefile struct {
 	BoilerplatePath string
 	// Controller tools version to use in the project
 	ControllerToolsVersion string
-	//Kustomize version to use in the project
+	// Kustomize version to use in the project
 	KustomizeVersion string
+	// ControllerRuntimeEnvTestVersion version to be used to download the envtest setup script
+	ControllerRuntimeEnvTestVersion string
 }
 
 // SetTemplateDefaults implements input.Template
@@ -70,8 +72,11 @@ endif
 all: manager
 
 # Run tests
+ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR=$(shell pwd)/testbin
 test: generate fmt vet manifests
-	go test -race -coverprofile cover.out ./...
+	mkdir -p ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}
+	test -f ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh || curl -sSLo ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/controller-runtime/{{ .ControllerRuntimeEnvTestVersion }}/hack/setup-envtest.sh
+	source ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh; fetch_envtest_tools $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); setup_envtest_env $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); go test ./... -coverprofile cover.out
 
 # Build manager binary
 manager: generate fmt vet
diff --git a/scripts/setup_envtest_bins.sh b/scripts/setup_envtest_bins.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index be49b0de9c2..00000000000
--- a/scripts/setup_envtest_bins.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,86 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-
-#  Copyright 2020 The Kubernetes Authors.
-#
-#  Licensed 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 file will be  fetched as: curl -L https://git.io/getLatestKubebuilder | sh -
-# so it should be pure bourne shell, not bash (and not reference other scripts)
-
-set -eu
-
-# To use envtest is required to have etcd, kube-apiserver and kubetcl binaries installed locally.
-# This script will create the directory testbin and perform this setup for linux or mac os x envs in
-
-# Kubernetes version e.g v1.18.2
-K8S_VER=$1
-# ETCD version e.g v3.4.3
-ETCD_VER=$2
-OS=$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
-ARCH=$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_64/amd64/')
-ETCD_EXT="tar.gz"
-TESTBIN_DIR=testbin
-
-setup_testenv_bin() {
-  # Do nothing if the $TESTBIN_DIR directory exist already.
-  if [ ! -d $TESTBIN_DIR ]; then
-    mkdir -p $TESTBIN_DIR
-
-    # install etcd binary
-    # the extension for linux env is not equals for mac os x
-    if [ $OS == "darwin" ]; then
-       ETCD_EXT="zip"
-    fi
-    [[ -x ${TESTBIN_DIR}/etcd ]] || curl -L https://storage.googleapis.com/etcd/${ETCD_VER}/etcd-${ETCD_VER}-${OS}-${ARCH}.${ETCD_EXT} | tar zx -C ${TESTBIN_DIR} --strip-components=1 etcd-${ETCD_VER}-${OS}-${ARCH}/etcd
-
-    # install kube-apiserver and kubetcl binaries
-    if [ $OS == "darwin" ]
-    then
-      # kubernetes do not provide the kubernetes-server for darwin,
-      # In this way, to have the kube-apiserver is required to build it locally
-      # if the project is cloned locally already do nothing
-      if [ ! -d $GOPATH/src/k8s.io/kubernetes ]; then
-      git clone https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes $GOPATH/src/k8s.io/kubernetes --depth=1 -b ${K8S_VER}
-      fi
-
-      # if the kube-apiserve is built already then, just copy it
-      if [ ! -f $GOPATH/src/k8s.io/kubernetes/_output/local/bin/darwin/amd64/kube-apiserver ]; then
-      DIR=$(pwd)
-      cd $GOPATH/src/k8s.io/kubernetes
-      # Build for linux first otherwise it won't work for darwin - :(
-      export KUBE_BUILD_PLATFORMS="linux/amd64"
-      make WHAT=cmd/kube-apiserver
-      export KUBE_BUILD_PLATFORMS="darwin/amd64"
-      make WHAT=cmd/kube-apiserver
-      cd ${DIR}
-      fi
-      cp $GOPATH/src/k8s.io/kubernetes/_output/local/bin/darwin/amd64/kube-apiserver $TESTBIN_DIR/
-
-      # setup kubectl binary
-      curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/${K8S_VER}/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl
-      chmod +x kubectl
-      mv kubectl $TESTBIN_DIR/
-
-      # allow run the tests without the Mac OS Firewall popup shows for each execution
-      codesign --deep --force --verbose --sign - ./${TESTBIN_DIR}/kube-apiserver
-    else
-      [[ -x $TESTBIN_DIR/kube-apiserver && -x ${TESTBIN_DIR}/kubectl ]] || curl -L https://dl.k8s.io/${K8S_VER}/kubernetes-server-${OS}-${ARCH}.tar.gz | tar zx -C ${TESTBIN_DIR} --strip-components=3 kubernetes/server/bin/kube-apiserver kubernetes/server/bin/kubectl
-    fi
-  fi
-  export PATH=/$TESTBIN_DIR:$PATH
-  export TEST_ASSET_KUBECTL=/$TESTBIN_DIR/kubectl
-  export TEST_ASSET_KUBE_APISERVER=/$TESTBIN_DIR/kube-apiserver
-  export TEST_ASSET_ETCD=/$TESTBIN_DIR/etcd
-}
-
-setup_testenv_bin
diff --git a/test.sh b/test.sh
index af5f0c580c4..9f769bd8168 100755
--- a/test.sh
+++ b/test.sh
@@ -152,7 +152,4 @@ GO111MODULE=on test_project project-v3 3-alpha
 GO111MODULE=on test_project project-v3-multigroup 3-alpha
 GO111MODULE=on test_project project-v3-addon 3-alpha
 
-# test script that setup envtest
-./scripts/setup_envtest_bins.sh v1.18.2 v3.4.3
-
 exit $rc
diff --git a/testdata/project-v3-addon/Makefile b/testdata/project-v3-addon/Makefile
index 514e029eedd..52f5e92d39f 100644
--- a/testdata/project-v3-addon/Makefile
+++ b/testdata/project-v3-addon/Makefile
@@ -14,8 +14,11 @@ endif
 all: manager
 
 # Run tests
+ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR=$(shell pwd)/testbin
 test: generate fmt vet manifests
-	go test -race -coverprofile cover.out ./...
+	mkdir -p ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}
+	test -f ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh || curl -sSLo ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/controller-runtime/master/hack/setup-envtest.sh
+	source ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh; fetch_envtest_tools $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); setup_envtest_env $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); go test ./... -coverprofile cover.out
 
 # Build manager binary
 manager: generate fmt vet
diff --git a/testdata/project-v3-multigroup/Makefile b/testdata/project-v3-multigroup/Makefile
index 514e029eedd..52f5e92d39f 100644
--- a/testdata/project-v3-multigroup/Makefile
+++ b/testdata/project-v3-multigroup/Makefile
@@ -14,8 +14,11 @@ endif
 all: manager
 
 # Run tests
+ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR=$(shell pwd)/testbin
 test: generate fmt vet manifests
-	go test -race -coverprofile cover.out ./...
+	mkdir -p ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}
+	test -f ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh || curl -sSLo ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/controller-runtime/master/hack/setup-envtest.sh
+	source ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh; fetch_envtest_tools $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); setup_envtest_env $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); go test ./... -coverprofile cover.out
 
 # Build manager binary
 manager: generate fmt vet
diff --git a/testdata/project-v3/Makefile b/testdata/project-v3/Makefile
index 514e029eedd..52f5e92d39f 100644
--- a/testdata/project-v3/Makefile
+++ b/testdata/project-v3/Makefile
@@ -14,8 +14,11 @@ endif
 all: manager
 
 # Run tests
+ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR=$(shell pwd)/testbin
 test: generate fmt vet manifests
-	go test -race -coverprofile cover.out ./...
+	mkdir -p ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}
+	test -f ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh || curl -sSLo ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes-sigs/controller-runtime/master/hack/setup-envtest.sh
+	source ${ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR}/setup-envtest.sh; fetch_envtest_tools $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); setup_envtest_env $(ENVTEST_ASSETS_DIR); go test ./... -coverprofile cover.out
 
 # Build manager binary
 manager: generate fmt vet