diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 13f0787..875fa8b 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 coverage!=4.4,>=4.0 # Apache-2.0
 fixtures>=3.0.0 # Apache-2.0/BSD
-hacking>=3.0.1,<3.1.0 # Apache-2.0
+hacking>=7.0.0,<7.1.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslotest>=3.2.0 # Apache-2.0
 python-subunit>=1.0.0 # Apache-2.0/BSD
 stestr>=2.0.0 # Apache-2.0
diff --git a/watcherclient/v1/strategy_shell.py b/watcherclient/v1/strategy_shell.py
index 88fd1d8..5c100b7 100644
--- a/watcherclient/v1/strategy_shell.py
+++ b/watcherclient/v1/strategy_shell.py
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ class StateStrategy(command.Lister):
 
     def _format_spec(self, requirements):
         for req in requirements:
-            if type(req.state) == list:
+            if isinstance(req.state, list):
                 req.state = jsonutils.dumps(req.state, indent=2)
         return requirements