diff --git a/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/Procedure.java b/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/Procedure.java
index 13de210c6b3..601ebcd0f49 100644
--- a/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/Procedure.java
+++ b/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/Procedure.java
@@ -206,10 +206,18 @@ public abstract class Procedure<TEnvironment> implements Comparable<Procedure> {
     }
 
     sb.append(" state=");
-    sb.append(getState());
+    toStringState(sb);
     return sb.toString();
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Called from {@link #toString()} when interpolating {@link Procedure} state
+   * @param builder Append current {@link ProcedureState}
+   */
+  protected void toStringState(StringBuilder builder) {
+    builder.append(getState());
+  }
+
   /**
    * Extend the toString() information with the procedure details
    * e.g. className and parameters
diff --git a/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/StateMachineProcedure.java b/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/StateMachineProcedure.java
index 8b132e7073c..286a7bf8e83 100644
--- a/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/StateMachineProcedure.java
+++ b/hbase-procedure/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/StateMachineProcedure.java
@@ -163,6 +163,14 @@ public abstract class StateMachineProcedure<TEnvironment, TState>
     states[stateCount++] = stateId;
   }
 
+  @Override
+  protected void toStringState(StringBuilder builder) {
+    super.toStringState(builder);
+    if (!isFinished() && getCurrentState() != null) {
+      builder.append(":").append(getCurrentState());
+    }
+  }
+
   @Override
   protected void serializeStateData(final OutputStream stream) throws IOException {
     StateMachineProcedureData.Builder data = StateMachineProcedureData.newBuilder();
diff --git a/hbase-procedure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/TestProcedureToString.java b/hbase-procedure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/TestProcedureToString.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5dea06ea1ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hbase-procedure/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/procedure2/TestProcedureToString.java
@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.hadoop.hbase.procedure2;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
+
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
+
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.protobuf.generated.MasterProcedureProtos.ServerCrashState;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.protobuf.generated.ProcedureProtos.ProcedureState;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.MasterTests;
+import org.apache.hadoop.hbase.testclassification.SmallTests;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.experimental.categories.Category;
+
+@Category({MasterTests.class, SmallTests.class})
+public class TestProcedureToString {
+  /**
+   * A do-nothing environment for BasicProcedure.
+   */
+  static class BasicProcedureEnv {};
+
+  /**
+   * A do-nothing basic procedure just for testing toString.
+   */
+  static class BasicProcedure extends Procedure<BasicProcedureEnv> {
+    @Override
+    protected Procedure<?>[] execute(BasicProcedureEnv env)
+        throws ProcedureYieldException, InterruptedException {
+      return new Procedure [] {this};
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void rollback(BasicProcedureEnv env) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected boolean abort(BasicProcedureEnv env) {
+      return false;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void serializeStateData(OutputStream stream) throws IOException {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void deserializeStateData(InputStream stream) throws IOException {
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * A do-nothing basic procedure that overrides the toStringState method. It just doubles the
+   * current state string.
+   */
+  static class DoublingStateStringBasicProcedure extends BasicProcedure {
+    @Override
+    protected void toStringState(StringBuilder builder) {
+      // Call twice to get the state string twice as our state value.
+      super.toStringState(builder);
+      super.toStringState(builder);
+    }
+  }
+
+  
+
+  /**
+   * Test that I can override the toString for its state value.
+   * @throws ProcedureYieldException
+   * @throws InterruptedException
+   */
+  @Test
+  public void testBasicToString() throws ProcedureYieldException, InterruptedException {
+    BasicProcedure p = new BasicProcedure();
+    ProcedureState state = ProcedureState.RUNNABLE;
+    p.setState(state);
+    // Just assert that the toString basically works and has state in it.
+    assertTrue(p.toString().contains(state.toString()));
+    p = new DoublingStateStringBasicProcedure();
+    p.setState(state);
+    // Assert our override works and that we get double the state...
+    String testStr = state.toString() + state.toString();
+    assertTrue(p.toString().contains(testStr));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Do-nothing SimpleMachineProcedure for checking its toString.
+   */
+  static class SimpleStateMachineProcedure
+  extends StateMachineProcedure<BasicProcedureEnv, ServerCrashState> {
+    @Override
+    protected org.apache.hadoop.hbase.procedure2.StateMachineProcedure.Flow executeFromState(BasicProcedureEnv env,
+        ServerCrashState state) throws ProcedureYieldException, InterruptedException {
+      return null;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected void rollbackState(BasicProcedureEnv env, ServerCrashState state) throws IOException,
+        InterruptedException {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected ServerCrashState getState(int stateId) {
+      return ServerCrashState.valueOf(stateId);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected int getStateId(ServerCrashState state) {
+      return state.getNumber();
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected ServerCrashState getInitialState() {
+      return null;
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected boolean abort(BasicProcedureEnv env) {
+      return false;
+    }
+  }
+
+  @Test
+  public void testStateMachineProcedure() {
+    SimpleStateMachineProcedure p = new SimpleStateMachineProcedure();
+    ProcedureState state = ProcedureState.RUNNABLE;
+    p.setState(state);
+    p.setNextState(ServerCrashState.SERVER_CRASH_ASSIGN);
+    // Just assert that the toString basically works and has state in it.
+    assertTrue(p.toString().contains(state.toString()));
+    assertTrue(p.toString().contains(ServerCrashState.SERVER_CRASH_ASSIGN.toString()));
+  }
+}
\ No newline at end of file