diff --git a/BUILDING.txt b/BUILDING.txt
index c12d8da44fad7e..357678d10345c2 100644
--- a/BUILDING.txt
+++ b/BUILDING.txt
@@ -220,6 +220,9 @@ Maven build goals:
 
   * Use -DskipTests to skip tests when running the following Maven goals:
     'package',  'install', 'deploy' or 'verify'
+  * Use -DskipJasmineTests=true to skip only the browser-driven jasmine tests in
+    hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog-webapp (e.g. on a headless machine with no
+    browser) while still running the module's other tests.
   * -Dtest=<TESTCLASSNAME>,<TESTCLASSNAME#METHODNAME>,....
   * -Dtest.exclude=<TESTCLASSNAME>
   * -Dtest.exclude.pattern=**/<TESTCLASSNAME1>.java,**/<TESTCLASSNAME2>.java
diff --git a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog-webapp/pom.xml b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog-webapp/pom.xml
index 9c93c9553def72..4fec0bdbff3c61 100644
--- a/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog-webapp/pom.xml
+++ b/hadoop-yarn-project/hadoop-yarn/hadoop-yarn-applications/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog/hadoop-yarn-applications-catalog-webapp/pom.xml
@@ -484,7 +484,9 @@
                     </execution>
                 </executions>
                 <configuration>
-                    <skipJasmineTests>${skipTests}</skipJasmineTests>
+                    <!-- Jasmine tests are skipped if any one of -Dmaven.test.skip=true,
+                         -DskipTests, -DskipJasmineTests=true is set. Don't declare
+                         skipJasmineTests here: it would override those command-line flags. -->
                     <webDriverClassName>org.openqa.selenium.phantomjs.PhantomJSDriver</webDriverClassName>
                     <webDriverCapabilities>
                         <capability>