diff --git a/easybuild/framework/easyconfig/easyconfig.py b/easybuild/framework/easyconfig/easyconfig.py
index 73182da7ac..1b28cba328 100644
--- a/easybuild/framework/easyconfig/easyconfig.py
+++ b/easybuild/framework/easyconfig/easyconfig.py
@@ -849,7 +849,7 @@ def check_deprecated(self, path):
         if depr_msgs:
             depr_msg = ', '.join(depr_msgs)
 
-            depr_maj_ver = int(str(VERSION).split('.')[0]) + 1
+            depr_maj_ver = int(str(VERSION).split('.', maxsplit=1)[0]) + 1
             depr_ver = '%s.0' % depr_maj_ver
 
             more_info_depr_ec = " (see also http://easybuild.readthedocs.org/en/latest/Deprecated-easyconfigs.html)"
@@ -864,8 +864,8 @@ def validate(self, check_osdeps=True):
         - check license
         """
         self.log.info("Validating easyconfig")
-        for attr in self.validations:
-            self._validate(attr, self.validations[attr])
+        for attr, valid_values in self.validations.items():
+            self._validate(attr, valid_values)
 
         if check_osdeps:
             self.log.info("Checking OS dependencies")
@@ -1229,8 +1229,8 @@ def dump(self, fp, always_overwrite=True, backup=False, explicit_toolchains=Fals
         # templated values should be dumped unresolved
         with self.disable_templating():
             # build dict of default values
-            default_values = {key: DEFAULT_CONFIG[key][0] for key in DEFAULT_CONFIG}
-            default_values.update({key: self.extra_options[key][0] for key in self.extra_options})
+            default_values = {key: value[0] for key, value in DEFAULT_CONFIG.items()}
+            default_values.update({key: value[0] for key, value in self.extra_options.items()})
 
             self.generate_template_values()
             templ_const = {quote_py_str(const[1]): const[0] for const in TEMPLATE_CONSTANTS}
diff --git a/test/framework/easyconfig.py b/test/framework/easyconfig.py
index 45e2852221..9801e467dd 100644
--- a/test/framework/easyconfig.py
+++ b/test/framework/easyconfig.py
@@ -2141,8 +2141,8 @@ def test_external_dependencies_templates(self):
             'pyshortver': '3.6',
             'pyver': '3.6.5',
         }
-        for key in expected_template_values:
-            self.assertEqual(ec.template_values[key], expected_template_values[key])
+        for key, expected in expected_template_values.items():
+            self.assertEqual(ec.template_values[key], expected)
 
         self.assertEqual(ec['versionsuffix'], '-Python-3.6.5-Perl-5.30')
 
@@ -2218,8 +2218,8 @@ def test_quote_str(self):
             'foo\\bar': '"foo\\bar"',
         }
 
-        for t in teststrings:
-            self.assertEqual(quote_str(t), teststrings[t])
+        for t, expected in teststrings.items():
+            self.assertEqual(quote_str(t), expected)
 
         # test escape_newline
         self.assertEqual(quote_str("foo\nbar", escape_newline=False), '"foo\nbar"')
@@ -4873,8 +4873,8 @@ def test_get_cuda_cc_template_value(self):
         update_build_option('cuda_compute_capabilities', ['6.5', '7.0'])
         ec = EasyConfig(self.eb_file)
 
-        for key in cuda_template_values:
-            self.assertEqual(ec.get_cuda_cc_template_value(key), cuda_template_values[key])
+        for key, expected in cuda_template_values.items():
+            self.assertEqual(ec.get_cuda_cc_template_value(key), expected)
 
         update_build_option('cuda_compute_capabilities', None)
         ec = EasyConfig(self.eb_file)
@@ -4886,8 +4886,8 @@ def test_get_cuda_cc_template_value(self):
         self.prep()
         ec = EasyConfig(self.eb_file)
 
-        for key in cuda_template_values:
-            self.assertEqual(ec.get_cuda_cc_template_value(key), cuda_template_values[key])
+        for key, expected in cuda_template_values.items():
+            self.assertEqual(ec.get_cuda_cc_template_value(key), expected)
 
     def test_count_files(self):
         """Tests for EasyConfig.count_files method."""