6 / 8 · Book 22 · From Ad Hoc Testing to Strategic Quality Engineering · drill: interview Q&A← prev⊞ allnext →Get the book →
1.12Question 1
Prompt: You join a new team and discover they have 2,000 test cases but no test strategy. Production bugs are increasing. Walk me through your first 30 days. What a strong answer should cover:
- Assessing current maturity level before proposing changes
- Identifying where testing effort misaligns with business risk
- Building a case for change using data (escaped defects, cost of bugs)
- Getting stakeholder buy-in before imposing process Example answer:
- Week 1: Audit the existing 2,000 test cases -- classify by risk area and test level. Measure what percentage cover high-risk features vs. low-risk features.
- Week 2: Track the last quarter's production bugs. Map them to feature areas and identify where testing gaps exist.
- Week 3: Draft a one-page maturity assessment showing where the team is (likely Level 2) and where it should be (Level 3), with the cost of the current gap.
- Week 4: Present the assessment to engineering leadership with a 90-day plan to introduce risk-based test allocation, starting with the top 3 riskiest areas.