diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index a6021c31143..111a4616e83 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ Ronny Pfannschmidt
 Ross Lawley
 Ryan Wooden
 Samuele Pedroni
+Tareq Alayan
 Tom Viner
 Trevor Bekolay
 Wouter van Ackooy
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 0e7107337cb..4316fe43030 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -11,7 +11,9 @@
   for a fixture (to solve the funcarg-shadowing-fixture problem).
   Thanks `@novas0x2a`_ for the complete PR (`#1444`_).
 
-*
+* New Add ability to add global properties in the final xunit output file.
+  Thanks `@tareqalayan`_ for the complete PR `#1454`_).
+
 
 *
 
@@ -29,7 +31,7 @@
 
 .. _#1428: https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/pull/1428
 .. _#1444: https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/pull/1444
-
+.. _#1454: https://github.com/pytest-dev/pytest/pull/1454
 
 2.9.1.dev1
 ==========
diff --git a/_pytest/junitxml.py b/_pytest/junitxml.py
index 6c090f9c0c0..168faaf1367 100644
--- a/_pytest/junitxml.py
+++ b/_pytest/junitxml.py
@@ -254,6 +254,7 @@ def __init__(self, logfile, prefix):
         ], 0)
         self.node_reporters = {}  # nodeid -> _NodeReporter
         self.node_reporters_ordered = []
+        self.global_properties = []
 
     def finalize(self, report):
         nodeid = getattr(report, 'nodeid', report)
@@ -273,9 +274,12 @@ def node_reporter(self, report):
         if key in self.node_reporters:
             # TODO: breasks for --dist=each
             return self.node_reporters[key]
+
         reporter = _NodeReporter(nodeid, self)
+
         self.node_reporters[key] = reporter
         self.node_reporters_ordered.append(reporter)
+
         return reporter
 
     def add_stats(self, key):
@@ -361,7 +365,9 @@ def pytest_sessionfinish(self):
         numtests = self.stats['passed'] + self.stats['failure']
 
         logfile.write('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>')
+
         logfile.write(Junit.testsuite(
+            self._get_global_properties_node(),
             [x.to_xml() for x in self.node_reporters_ordered],
             name="pytest",
             errors=self.stats['error'],
@@ -374,3 +380,18 @@ def pytest_sessionfinish(self):
     def pytest_terminal_summary(self, terminalreporter):
         terminalreporter.write_sep("-",
                                    "generated xml file: %s" % (self.logfile))
+
+    def add_global_property(self, name, value):
+        self.global_properties.append((str(name), bin_xml_escape(value)))
+
+    def _get_global_properties_node(self):
+        """Return a Junit node containing custom properties, if any.
+        """
+        if self.global_properties:
+            return Junit.properties(
+                    [
+                        Junit.property(name=name, value=value)
+                        for name, value in self.global_properties
+                    ]
+            )
+        return ''
diff --git a/testing/test_junitxml.py b/testing/test_junitxml.py
index 99c59cb7a0b..338d8c054a0 100644
--- a/testing/test_junitxml.py
+++ b/testing/test_junitxml.py
@@ -783,3 +783,44 @@ def test_pass():
         u'test_fancy_items_regression test_pass'
         u' test_fancy_items_regression.py',
     ]
+
+
+def test_global_properties(testdir):
+    path = testdir.tmpdir.join("test_global_properties.xml")
+    log = LogXML(str(path), None)
+    from _pytest.runner import BaseReport
+
+    class Report(BaseReport):
+        sections = []
+        nodeid = "test_node_id"
+
+    log.pytest_sessionstart()
+    log.add_global_property('foo', 1)
+    log.add_global_property('bar', 2)
+    log.pytest_sessionfinish()
+
+    dom = minidom.parse(str(path))
+
+    properties = dom.getElementsByTagName('properties')
+
+    assert (properties.length == 1), "There must be one <properties> node"
+
+    property_list = dom.getElementsByTagName('property')
+
+    assert (property_list.length == 2), "There most be only 2 property nodes"
+
+    expected = {'foo': '1', 'bar': '2'}
+    actual = {}
+
+    for p in property_list:
+        k = str(p.getAttribute('name'))
+        v = str(p.getAttribute('value'))
+        actual[k] = v
+
+    assert (len(actual.keys()) == len(expected.keys()))
+
+    for key, value in list(actual.items()):
+        if key in expected and expected[k] == v:
+            continue
+        else:
+            assert False, "Actual : %s != expected: %s" % (actual, expected)