diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTree.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTree.scala
index aaa5a4fef6697..1c813244e5630 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTree.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTree.scala
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ import org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.configuration.Strategy
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.configuration.QuantileStrategy._
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.configuration.FeatureType._
 import org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.configuration.Algo._
+import org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.impurity.Impurity
 
 /**
 A class that implements a decision tree algorithm for classification and regression.
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ algorithm (classification,
 regression, etc.), feature type (continuous, categorical), depth of the tree,
 quantile calculation strategy, etc.
  */
-class DecisionTree(val strategy : Strategy) extends Serializable with Logging {
+class DecisionTree private (val strategy : Strategy) extends Serializable with Logging {
 
   /**
   Method to train a decision tree model over an RDD
@@ -157,6 +158,70 @@ class DecisionTree(val strategy : Strategy) extends Serializable with Logging {
 
 object DecisionTree extends Serializable with Logging {
 
+  /**
+  Method to train a decision tree model over an RDD
+
+  @param input RDD of [[org.apache.spark.mllib.regression.LabeledPoint]] used as training data
+  for DecisionTree
+  @param strategy The configuration parameters for the tree algorithm which specify the type of algorithm
+                                  (classification, regression, etc.), feature type (continuous, categorical),
+                                  depth of the tree, quantile calculation strategy, etc.
+  @return a DecisionTreeModel that can be used for prediction
+  */
+  def train(input : RDD[LabeledPoint], strategy : Strategy) : DecisionTreeModel = {
+    new DecisionTree(strategy).train(input : RDD[LabeledPoint])
+  }
+
+  /**
+  Method to train a decision tree model over an RDD
+
+  @param input RDD of [[org.apache.spark.mllib.regression.LabeledPoint]] used as training data
+  for DecisionTree
+  @param algo classification or regression
+  @param impurity criterion used for information gain calculation
+  @param maxDepth maximum depth of the tree
+  @return a DecisionTreeModel that can be used for prediction
+    */
+  def train(
+             input : RDD[LabeledPoint],
+             algo : Algo,
+             impurity : Impurity,
+             maxDepth : Int
+             ) : DecisionTreeModel = {
+    val strategy = new Strategy(algo,impurity,maxDepth)
+    new DecisionTree(strategy).train(input : RDD[LabeledPoint])
+  }
+
+
+  /**
+  Method to train a decision tree model over an RDD
+
+  @param input RDD of [[org.apache.spark.mllib.regression.LabeledPoint]] used as training data
+  for DecisionTree
+  @param algo classification or regression
+  @param impurity criterion used for information gain calculation
+  @param maxDepth maximum depth of the tree
+  @param maxBins maximum number of bins used for splitting features
+  @param quantileCalculationStrategy algorithm for calculating quantiles
+  @param categoricalFeaturesInfo A map storing information about the categorical variables and the number of discrete
+                                 values they take. For example, an entry (n -> k) implies the feature n is
+                                 categorical with k categories 0, 1, 2, ... , k-1. It's important to note that
+                                 features are zero-indexed.
+  @return a DecisionTreeModel that can be used for prediction
+    */
+  def train(
+             input : RDD[LabeledPoint],
+             algo : Algo,
+             impurity : Impurity,
+             maxDepth : Int,
+             maxBins : Int,
+             quantileCalculationStrategy : QuantileStrategy,
+             categoricalFeaturesInfo : Map[Int,Int]
+             ) : DecisionTreeModel = {
+    val strategy = new Strategy(algo,impurity,maxDepth,maxBins,quantileCalculationStrategy,categoricalFeaturesInfo)
+    new DecisionTree(strategy).train(input : RDD[LabeledPoint])
+  }
+
   /**
   Returns an Array[Split] of optimal splits for all nodes at a given level
 
@@ -717,13 +782,13 @@ object DecisionTree extends Serializable with Logging {
   for DecisionTree
   @param strategy [[org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.configuration.Strategy]] instance containing
   parameters for construction the DecisionTree
-  @return a tuple of (splits,bins) where Split is an Array[Array[Split]] of size (numFeatures,
-  numSplits-1) and bins is an
-   Array[Array[Bin]] of size (numFeatures,numSplits1)
+  @return a tuple of (splits,bins) where splits is an Array of [org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.model.Split] of
+                  size (numFeatures,numSplits-1) and bins is an Array of [org.apache.spark.mllib.tree.model.Bin] of
+                  size (numFeatures,numSplits1)
    */
   def findSplitsBins(
       input : RDD[LabeledPoint],
-      strategy : Strategy) : (Array[Array[Split]], Array[Array[Bin]]) = {
+      strategy : Strategy): (Array[Array[Split]], Array[Array[Bin]]) = {
 
     val count = input.count()
 
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTreeRunner.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTreeRunner.scala
index 05d000f3a3ddc..d93633d26228d 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTreeRunner.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/DecisionTreeRunner.scala
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ object DecisionTreeRunner extends Logging {
     val maxBins = options.getOrElse('maxBins,"100").toString.toInt
 
     val strategy = new Strategy(algo = algo, impurity = impurity, maxDepth = maxDepth, maxBins = maxBins)
-    val model = new DecisionTree(strategy).train(trainData)
+    val model = DecisionTree.train(trainData,strategy)
 
     //Load test data
     val testData = loadLabeledData(sc, options.get('testDataDir).get.toString)
diff --git a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/configuration/Strategy.scala b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/configuration/Strategy.scala
index 973aaee49e5fb..88dfa76fc284f 100644
--- a/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/configuration/Strategy.scala
+++ b/mllib/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/mllib/tree/configuration/Strategy.scala
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class Strategy  (
                 val algo : Algo,
                 val impurity : Impurity,
                 val maxDepth : Int,
-                val maxBins : Int,
+                val maxBins : Int = 100,
                 val quantileCalculationStrategy : QuantileStrategy = Sort,
                 val categoricalFeaturesInfo : Map[Int,Int] = Map[Int,Int]()) extends Serializable {