diff --git a/nova/conf/placement.py b/nova/conf/placement.py
index 417a17ec78ac..0bafd79bd96a 100644
--- a/nova/conf/placement.py
+++ b/nova/conf/placement.py
@@ -51,17 +51,17 @@ is determined.
         help="""
 Early API microversions (<1.8) allowed creating allocations and not specifying
 a project or user identifier for the consumer. In cleaning up the data
-modeling, we no longer allow missing project and user information. if an older
+modeling, we no longer allow missing project and user information. If an older
 client makes an allocation, we'll use this in place of the information it
 doesn't provide.
 """),
-cfg.StrOpt(
+    cfg.StrOpt(
         'incomplete_consumer_user_id',
         default=DEFAULT_CONSUMER_MISSING_ID,
         help="""
 Early API microversions (<1.8) allowed creating allocations and not specifying
 a project or user identifier for the consumer. In cleaning up the data
-modeling, we no longer allow missing project and user information. if an older
+modeling, we no longer allow missing project and user information. If an older
 client makes an allocation, we'll use this in place of the information it
 doesn't provide.
 """),
diff --git a/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/db/test_consumer.py b/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/db/test_consumer.py
index af8c27fdd102..c7e0eaf75b79 100644
--- a/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/db/test_consumer.py
+++ b/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/db/test_consumer.py
@@ -107,20 +107,21 @@ class CreateIncompleteConsumersTestCase(test.NoDBTestCase):
 
     @db_api.placement_context_manager.reader
     def _check_incomplete_consumers(self, ctx):
-        incomplete_external_id = CONF.placement.incomplete_consumer_project_id
+        incomplete_project_id = CONF.placement.incomplete_consumer_project_id
 
         # Verify we have a record in projects for the missing sentinel
         sel = PROJECT_TBL.select(
-            PROJECT_TBL.c.external_id == incomplete_external_id)
+            PROJECT_TBL.c.external_id == incomplete_project_id)
         rec = ctx.session.execute(sel).first()
-        self.assertEqual(incomplete_external_id, rec['external_id'])
+        self.assertEqual(incomplete_project_id, rec['external_id'])
         incomplete_proj_id = rec['id']
 
         # Verify we have a record in users for the missing sentinel
+        incomplete_user_id = CONF.placement.incomplete_consumer_user_id
         sel = user_obj.USER_TBL.select(
-            USER_TBL.c.external_id == incomplete_external_id)
+            USER_TBL.c.external_id == incomplete_user_id)
         rec = ctx.session.execute(sel).first()
-        self.assertEqual(incomplete_external_id, rec['external_id'])
+        self.assertEqual(incomplete_user_id, rec['external_id'])
         incomplete_user_id = rec['id']
 
         # Verify there are records in the consumers table for our old
diff --git a/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/gabbits/ensure-consumer.yaml b/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/gabbits/ensure-consumer.yaml
index 2c574df99b65..0a27fe40c2ab 100644
--- a/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/gabbits/ensure-consumer.yaml
+++ b/nova/tests/functional/api/openstack/placement/gabbits/ensure-consumer.yaml
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
-# Tests of the ensure consumer behaviour for versions of the API from <1.7 to
-# 1.8-1.26 and finally 1.27+
+# Tests of the ensure consumer behaviour for versions of the API before 1.8;
+# starting with 1.8, project_id and user_id are required by the
+# PUT: /allocations/{consumer_uuid} API.
 fixtures:
     - AllocationFixture