diff --git a/managedvms/sparkjava/README.md b/managedvms/sparkjava/README.md
index 3f7ee8d795d..6cf5f47b5c5 100644
--- a/managedvms/sparkjava/README.md
+++ b/managedvms/sparkjava/README.md
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ Setup
 
 2. Set up the local development environment by [installing the Google Cloud SDK](https://cloud.google.com/sdk/) and running the following commands in command line: `gcloud auth login` and `gcloud config set project [YOUR PROJECT ID]`.
 
-3. Ensure that you have Maven installed. See installation instructions [here](https://maven.apache.org/install.html).
+3. Ensure that you have Maven installed and configured to use Java 8. See installation instructions [here](https://maven.apache.org/install.html).
 
 Running locally
 ---------------