Author Archives: karennjohnson

Working with User Stories: The Existing Parts

Let me digress to make a comparison (in the process I may age myself but so be it) – I think back to the time when desktop publishing was first introduced. With desktop publishing draft copies gained a way of … Continue reading

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Working with User Stories: The Missing Parts

Not long ago, someone emailed me asking me to write about working with user stories. I have a few thoughts about working with user stories. I thought I would write about what I call the “missing parts problem” this time. … Continue reading

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It is complicated

I recently finished reading the novel, Complications, A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science. It was one of those books that I sometimes had a hard time staying physically seated to read because I had such strong reactions to what … Continue reading

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brain games

I finally had a chance to visit a store in Chicago, called Marbles, The Brain Store. They sell games designed to strengthen the brain. Their website and newsletters include other info centered around the brain – and not everything is … Continue reading

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The storyteller’s community

There is a world of storytellers and in that world there is a community just as much as there is a community in software testing. Katharine Hansen reached out to me recently with a warm welcome to the community of … Continue reading

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Testing SCDs

An SCD is a slowly changing dimension in a data warehouse. There are three different forms of SCDs. SCD1 overwrites data, SCD2 maintains historical data and SCD3 maintains some of the data. SCDs and testing in a data warehouse is … Continue reading

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The gold star

A thought I wanted to share. Perhaps not directly related to testing but I think could be helpful in other ways. I’ll pose this as a question: Do you give yourself a gold star? Or are you dependent on someone … Continue reading

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The repeat customer

Saturday morning I picked up a rental car. The process wasn’t unusual since I’ve picked up a car several times over the last few months from the same rental location. At this point, I know most of the car rental … Continue reading

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Test the Tester’s Site

So last weekend while I was supposed to be writing with Mike Kelly, I was distracted, and of course, distracted him from writing as well as we revamped my website. See: http://www.karennjohnson.com I’m sure my new site has issues, feel … Continue reading

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Karen’s unedited opinion of test script writing

Ok, so some years ago – now I promise this will tie back to a very recent conversation I had with a “tester” – but first – some years ago when I starting work as a newspaper reporter, I was … Continue reading

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