diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 26c4811bf8..d0473dbb8d 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -11,17 +11,31 @@ matrix:
       after_failure:
           -  cat `find out/junit-results -name "*.txt" -exec grep -l FAILED {} \;`
 
+    # gcc debug build.
+    # Includes dependency checker.
+    # Note - the dependency checker needs to be run on both a debug and an optimized build.
+    # This one (gcc) for debug, and linux clang (below) for optimized.
     - name: "c: linux gcc"
       language: cpp
-      env:      BUILD=ICU4C_GCC
       compiler: gcc
-      script:   cd icu4c/source && ./runConfigureICU Linux && make -j2 check
+      before_script:
+        - cd icu4c/source
+        - ./runConfigureICU --enable-debug --disable-release Linux
+        - make -j2
+      script:
+        - make -j2 check
+        - ( cd test/depstest && ./depstest.py ../../../source/ )
 
     - name: "c: linux clang"
       language: cpp
-      env:      BUILD=ICU4C_CLANG
       compiler: clang
-      script:   cd icu4c/source && ./runConfigureICU Linux && make -j2 check
+      before_script:
+        - cd icu4c/source
+        - ./runConfigureICU Linux
+        - make -j2
+      script:
+        - make -j2 check
+        - ( cd test/depstest && ./depstest.py ../../../source/ )
 
     - name: "c: osx clang"
       language: cpp