Provide the full path to the class you want to reference.
def render(self, notification, my_subtask):
"""
@type notification: full.path.to.Notification
@type my_subtask: celery.canvas.subtask
"""
return NotificationRepresentation(notification).to_dict()
# some irrelevant code
It might be a problem with your older installation, because providing the full path works for me in PyCharm 3.0. Try upgrading ;)