diff --git a/Doc/library/inspect.rst b/Doc/library/inspect.rst
--- a/Doc/library/inspect.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/inspect.rst
@@ -977,8 +977,28 @@ updated as expected:
    .. impl-detail::
 
       This function relies on the generator exposing a Python stack frame
       for introspection, which isn't guaranteed to be the case in all
       implementations of Python. In such cases, this function will always
       return an empty dictionary.
 
    .. versionadded:: 3.3
+
+
+Helpers
+-------
+
+.. function:: resolve_name(name)
+
+   Resolve a name like ``module.object`` to an object and return it.
+
+   :func:`resolve_name` supports packages and attributes without depth
+   limitation: ``package.package.module.class.function.attr`` is valid
+   input.
+
+   :func:`resolve_name` does *not* support relative imports. Raise
+   :exc:`ValueError` if *name* is starts with `.`.
+
+   Raise :exc:`ImportError` if importing the module fails or if one
+   requested attribute is not found.
+
+   .. versionadded:: 3.4
diff --git a/Lib/inspect.py b/Lib/inspect.py
--- a/Lib/inspect.py
+++ b/Lib/inspect.py
@@ -27,16 +27,17 @@ Here are some of the useful functions pr
 """
 
 # This module is in the public domain.  No warranties.
 
 __author__ = ('Ka-Ping Yee <ping@lfw.org>',
               'Yury Selivanov <yselivanov@sprymix.com>')
 
 import imp
+import importlib
 import importlib.machinery
 import itertools
 import linecache
 import os
 import re
 import sys
 import tokenize
 import types
@@ -2066,8 +2067,40 @@ class Signature:
 
         rendered = '({})'.format(', '.join(result))
 
         if self.return_annotation is not _empty:
             anno = formatannotation(self.return_annotation)
             rendered += ' -> {}'.format(anno)
 
         return rendered
+
+
+def resolve_name(name):
+    """Resolve a name like ``module.object`` to an object and return it.
+
+    :func:`resolve_name` supports packages and attributes without depth
+    limitation: ``package.package.module.class.function.attr`` is valid
+    input.
+
+    :func:`resolve_name` does *not* support relative imports. Raise
+    :exc:`ValueError` if *name* is starts with `.`.
+
+    Raise :exc:`ImportError` if importing the module fails or if one
+    requested attribute is not found.
+
+    """
+    if name.startswith('.'):
+        raise ValueError('Relative imports are not supported.')
+    if '.' not in name:
+        importlib.import_module(name)
+        return sys.modules[name]
+    names = name.split('.')
+    parent = names.pop(0)
+    found = importlib.import_module(parent)
+    for name in names:
+        submodule = '.'.join([parent, name])
+        try:
+            found = getattr(found, name)
+        except AttributeError:
+            importlib.import_module(submodule)
+            found = getattr(found, name)
+    return found
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_inspect.py b/Lib/test/test_inspect.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_inspect.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_inspect.py
@@ -3,18 +3,20 @@ import sys
 import types
 import unittest
 import inspect
 import linecache
 import datetime
 import collections
 import os
 import shutil
-from os.path import normcase
+import textwrap
+from os.path import dirname, join, normcase
 
+from test.script_helper import make_pkg, make_script, temp_dir
 from test.support import run_unittest, TESTFN, DirsOnSysPath
 
 from test import inspect_fodder as mod
 from test import inspect_fodder2 as mod2
 
 # C module for test_findsource_binary
 import unicodedata
 
@@ -2263,20 +2265,66 @@ class TestBoundArguments(unittest.TestCa
         ba3.arguments['a'] = 1
         self.assertEqual(ba, ba3)
 
         def bar(b): pass
         ba4 = inspect.signature(bar).bind(1)
         self.assertNotEqual(ba, ba4)
 
 
+class TestHelpers(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_resolve_name_package(self):
+        # The test package structure:
+        #
+        # spam/
+        # ├── eggs.py
+        # ├── __init__.py
+        dir = 'spam'
+        testdir = join(dirname(mod.__file__), 'data')
+        resolve_name = inspect.resolve_name
+        try:
+            make_pkg(join(testdir, dir), 'dummy_attr = True')
+            src = textwrap.dedent("""\
+            def foo(): return 42
+            """)
+            make_script(join(testdir, dir), 'eggs', src)
+            sys.path.insert(0, testdir)
+            self.assertEqual('spam', resolve_name('spam').__name__)
+            # In spam/__init__.py:
+            self.assertTrue(resolve_name('spam.dummy_attr'))
+            self.assertEqual('spam.eggs', resolve_name('spam.eggs').__name__)
+            eggs = resolve_name('spam.eggs')
+            self.assertEqual(42, eggs.foo())
+            self.assertRaises(ImportError, resolve_name, 'spam.invalid')
+        finally:
+            sys.path.remove(testdir)
+            shutil.rmtree(join(testdir, dir))
+
+    def test_resolve_name_module(self):
+        testdir = join(dirname(mod.__file__), 'data')
+        module_name = 'foo'
+        resolve_name = inspect.resolve_name
+        try:
+            src = textwrap.dedent("""\
+            def bar(): return 42
+            """)
+            make_script(testdir, module_name, src)
+            sys.path.insert(0, testdir)
+            self.assertEqual('foo', resolve_name('foo').__name__)
+            foo = resolve_name('foo')
+            self.assertEqual(42, foo.bar())
+        finally:
+            sys.path.remove(testdir)
+            os.unlink(join(testdir, module_name + os.extsep + 'py'))
+
+
 def test_main():
     run_unittest(
         TestDecorators, TestRetrievingSourceCode, TestOneliners, TestBuggyCases,
         TestInterpreterStack, TestClassesAndFunctions, TestPredicates,
         TestGetcallargsFunctions, TestGetcallargsMethods,
         TestGetcallargsUnboundMethods, TestGetattrStatic, TestGetGeneratorState,
         TestNoEOL, TestSignatureObject, TestSignatureBind, TestParameterObject,
-        TestBoundArguments, TestGetClosureVars
+        TestBoundArguments, TestGetClosureVars, TestHelpers,
     )
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     test_main()