diff --git a/phpunit.xml.dist b/phpunit.xml.dist
index 84ca6caf..f222c747 100644
--- a/phpunit.xml.dist
+++ b/phpunit.xml.dist
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 <phpunit xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
          xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="vendor/phpunit/phpunit/phpunit.xsd"
          bootstrap="vendor/autoload.php"
+         convertDeprecationsToExceptions="true"
          colors="true">
     <testsuites>
         <testsuite name="laminas-code Test Suite">
diff --git a/src/Scanner/DocBlockScanner.php b/src/Scanner/DocBlockScanner.php
index 955bb6c2..de13ef1a 100644
--- a/src/Scanner/DocBlockScanner.php
+++ b/src/Scanner/DocBlockScanner.php
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ class DocBlockScanner
     protected $docComment;
 
     /** @var string */
-    protected $shortDescription;
+    protected $shortDescription = '';
 
     /** @var string */
     protected $longDescription = '';
diff --git a/test/Scanner/DocBlockScannerTest.php b/test/Scanner/DocBlockScannerTest.php
index b1d9f6f4..0a696564 100644
--- a/test/Scanner/DocBlockScannerTest.php
+++ b/test/Scanner/DocBlockScannerTest.php
@@ -51,4 +51,11 @@ public function testDocBlockScannerDescriptions()
         self::assertEquals('Short Description', $tokenScanner->getShortDescription());
         self::assertEquals('Long Description continued in the second line', $tokenScanner->getLongDescription());
     }
+
+    public function testInvalidDocBlock()
+    {
+        $docComment   = '/**';
+        $tokenScanner = new DocBlockScanner($docComment);
+        self::assertEquals('', $tokenScanner->getShortDescription());
+    }
 }