diff --git a/dev/tests/unit/Magento/FunctionalTestFramework/Test/Util/ActionGroupObjectExtractorTest.php b/dev/tests/unit/Magento/FunctionalTestFramework/Test/Util/ActionGroupObjectExtractorTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..47b797c1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev/tests/unit/Magento/FunctionalTestFramework/Test/Util/ActionGroupObjectExtractorTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Copyright © Magento, Inc. All rights reserved.
+ * See COPYING.txt for license details.
+ */
+namespace tests\unit\Magento\FunctionalTestFramework\Test\Util;
+
+use Magento\FunctionalTestingFramework\Test\Util\ActionGroupObjectExtractor;
+use Magento\FunctionalTestingFramework\Util\MagentoTestCase;
+use tests\unit\Util\TestLoggingUtil;
+
+class ActionGroupObjectExtractorTest extends MagentoTestCase
+{
+    /** @var  ActionGroupObjectExtractor */
+    private $testActionGroupObjectExtractor;
+
+    /**
+     * Setup method
+     */
+    public function setUp()
+    {
+        $this->testActionGroupObjectExtractor = new ActionGroupObjectExtractor();
+        TestLoggingUtil::getInstance()->setMockLoggingUtil();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Tests basic action object extraction with an empty stepKey
+     */
+    public function testEmptyStepKey()
+    {
+        $this->expectExceptionMessage(
+            "StepKeys cannot be empty.	Action='sampleAction' in Action Group filename.xml"
+        );
+        $this->testActionGroupObjectExtractor->extractActionGroup($this->createBasicActionObjectArray(""));
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Utility function to return mock parser output for testing extraction into ActionObjects.
+     *
+     * @param string $stepKey
+     * @param string $actionGroup
+     * @param string $filename
+     * @return array
+     */
+    private function createBasicActionObjectArray(
+        $stepKey = 'testAction1',
+        $actionGroup = "actionGroup",
+        $filename = "filename.xml"
+    ) {
+        $baseArray = [
+            'nodeName' => 'actionGroup',
+            'name' => $actionGroup,
+            'filename' => $filename,
+            $stepKey => [
+                "nodeName" => "sampleAction",
+                "stepKey" => $stepKey,
+                "someAttribute" => "someAttributeValue"
+            ]
+        ];
+        return $baseArray;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * clean up function runs after all tests
+     */
+    public static function tearDownAfterClass()
+    {
+        TestLoggingUtil::getInstance()->clearMockLoggingUtil();
+    }
+}
diff --git a/dev/tests/unit/Magento/FunctionalTestFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractorTest.php b/dev/tests/unit/Magento/FunctionalTestFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractorTest.php
index 7872b3a02..1d645ab62 100644
--- a/dev/tests/unit/Magento/FunctionalTestFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractorTest.php
+++ b/dev/tests/unit/Magento/FunctionalTestFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractorTest.php
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ public function testInvalidMergeOrderReference()
         } catch (\Exception $e) {
             TestLoggingUtil::getInstance()->validateMockLogStatement(
                 'error',
-                'Line 103: Invalid ordering configuration in test',
+                'Line 108: Invalid ordering configuration in test',
                 [
                     'test' => 'TestWithSelfReferencingStepKey',
                     'stepKey' => ['invalidTestAction1']
@@ -89,6 +89,15 @@ public function testAmbiguousMergeOrderReference()
         );
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Tests basic action object extraction with an empty stepKey
+     */
+    public function testEmptyStepKey()
+    {
+        $this->expectExceptionMessage("StepKeys cannot be empty.	Action='sampleAction'");
+        $this->testActionObjectExtractor->extractActions($this->createBasicActionObjectArray(""));
+    }
+
     /**
      * Utility function to return mock parser output for testing extraction into ActionObjects.
      *
diff --git a/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionGroupObjectExtractor.php b/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionGroupObjectExtractor.php
index fd8093358..04f739af6 100644
--- a/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionGroupObjectExtractor.php
+++ b/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionGroupObjectExtractor.php
@@ -62,7 +62,11 @@ public function extractActionGroup($actionGroupData)
         );
 
         // TODO filename is now available to the ActionGroupObject, integrate this into debug and error statements
-        $actions = $this->actionObjectExtractor->extractActions($actionData);
+        try {
+            $actions = $this->actionObjectExtractor->extractActions($actionData);
+        } catch (\Exception $error) {
+            throw new XmlException($error->getMessage() . " in Action Group " . $actionGroupData[self::FILENAME]);
+        }
 
         if (array_key_exists(self::ACTION_GROUP_ARGUMENTS, $actionGroupData)) {
             $arguments = $this->extractArguments($actionGroupData[self::ACTION_GROUP_ARGUMENTS]);
diff --git a/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractor.php b/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractor.php
index 4ffd70ecf..d157ca5d6 100644
--- a/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractor.php
+++ b/src/Magento/FunctionalTestingFramework/Test/Util/ActionObjectExtractor.php
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ class ActionObjectExtractor extends BaseObjectExtractor
     const ACTION_GROUP_ARG_VALUE = 'value';
     const BEFORE_AFTER_ERROR_MSG = "Merge Error - Steps cannot have both before and after attributes.\tStepKey='%s'";
     const STEP_KEY_BLACKLIST_ERROR_MSG = "StepKeys cannot contain non alphanumeric characters.\tStepKey='%s'";
+    const STEP_KEY_EMPTY_ERROR_MSG = "StepKeys cannot be empty.\tAction='%s'";
     const DATA_PERSISTENCE_CUSTOM_FIELD = 'field';
     const DATA_PERSISTENCE_CUSTOM_FIELD_KEY = 'key';
     const ACTION_OBJECT_PERSISTENCE_FIELDS = 'customFields';
@@ -59,6 +60,10 @@ public function extractActions($testActions, $testName = null)
         foreach ($testActions as $actionName => $actionData) {
             $stepKey = $actionData[self::TEST_STEP_MERGE_KEY];
 
+            if (empty($stepKey)) {
+                throw new XmlException(sprintf(self::STEP_KEY_EMPTY_ERROR_MSG, $actionData['nodeName']));
+            }
+
             if (preg_match('/[^a-zA-Z0-9_]/', $stepKey)) {
                 throw new XmlException(sprintf(self::STEP_KEY_BLACKLIST_ERROR_MSG, $actionName));
             }