I think its hard to determine what is a "Best Practice" in this field since many aspects of software/hardware under test tend to be customized to the environments they are developed for what works in ...

I have done quite a few in-house tools built in different languages and platforms, and while I agree with everything that has been said before but one point I think is missing is determining not only ...

Many times you don't have time to create the test plan, I have at times been in project planning meetings where a grand scope has been given and Engineering is then asked then and there - to give an ...

The Parking Calculator that is on Markus Gartner's site is a good way to have someone test something, and if they peruse the site as well for interest good for them. The calculator is a well known ...

I have used Selenium and TestNG in the past to manage a lot of my automation and as Siva mentioned you do have the basics down. While TestNG is one of the most common Frameworks out there, it is not ...

Given infinite time and infinite resources you could never find all the defects within a feature or product, there may be some combination of keystrokes or conditions that can cause issues but are not ...

Seems like there is a disconnect between management and the QA Team, although I can't tell what Management is buying in if the QA Lead is outsourcing when you have done work. Communication could help,...

I would start with what you have, the inputs and outputs, then start questioning. I like to go through a bunch of what if's, such as in your case "what if the database is unavailable?" or "what if ...

Lyndon makes some good points, it does depend on what your installer does. When I have worked with them in the past, mostly I deal with SaaS and not so much with client apps anymore, but there were a ...

I've used Watir and a few other tools but the way I see it is that WAT** and some of the other options like that are framework tools, they give you a structure to build around. Selenium is by far a ...

Sometimes I talk with them personally and ask to walk through certain issues, sometimes under the pretext of I maybe missed something and want their input. It's a diplomatic way of trying to get ...

You could look up Testing Dojo's as well, and add another URL to the answer list: Testing Challenges. Some Programming Katas might be useful as well, I believe there used to be a few Ruby Kata's ...

I'd also add: http://www.sqaforums.com http://blog.isthereaproblemhere.com http://www.questioningsoftware.com http://blogs.msdn.com http://www.practicalqa.com

I'd agree with Bruce, it depends. If your requirements need these to run more often fit them in where you can. Otherwise what you may need to do, if you can afford it, is to set up an environment to ...

I've done it and basically I find these sorts of interviews come down to two main points. How well do you understand Test Plans, Strategies and documentation? Can you break down a project so that it ...

Best Practice I always find as a loaded term. While there are industry-wide practices some of those may be lenient in any particular space or be far more strict, especially in places where there is a ...

Well Coded UI Tests are hardly "new", though they were new to me as a framework when I was starting to use them early on. I put them in the category of "record and playback" but with extensibility ...

I've done this in many places myself, where we copied over production data because it was so very useful in troubleshooting issues that were only apparent in Customer data and it also provided ...

We have Developers test their code by doing a build and deploying it to the Development environment, and verify what they can in the new environment. If there are other changes in the build they need ...

Kate notes the classical example in her answer, it maybe you are not in that sort of environment. I've been in companies where the desire to use an Agile/Scrum process often outstrips the personnel ...

It depends on what sort of resources you can afford. Test Automation, done well, is not a part time effort. If you can't afford to have a Toolsmith on your team to work on the Automation Framework ...

Whenever I see something like this I start to think "it depends" on many things. What are your expectations for the migration? What are your coworkers expectations? Do they mesh? What is your ...

Basically your problem is you are trying to squeeze two months of work into one, make yourself super efficient while also dealing with an inordinate amount of code, and a large group of people who are ...

I have tried it and at times gotten some use out of it, the problem I have found when doing this is that often the scenarios I want to use for Functional Tests don't exploit enough of the system to ...

If you are using SpecFlow look at the Tags Tags description where placing a specific tag before your Scenario allows you to run the specific ones you want. I use @test or @dev for specific User/...

A few things I might check since this is PowerShell and the DB v1 against v2 (if you are expected to support it) various accounts, unless you expect them all to run Admin External libraries, we run a ...

If you are looking for tracking there are options like Jira - http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/ or MSTest if you use Visual Studio. Although you can find many options at Open Source Testing as ...

I concur with Joe, Selenium is good as a start, or you can pick any open source testing tool - many come in and out of fashion. What you should look at it learning how to apply the tool and integrate ...

If the puzzles and math problems reflect the actual product, then I'd agree they are valid interview tools to assess whether a candidate can handle the job. If these are due to a bias of education ...

Bj Rollison makes the best case, and it was the attitude I went with when I went to my first conference. I am a self-learner and in QA there is a lot of material, but most of it is broad, so I ...