Bug Hunting Strategies?

Question

Let\'s say you have a bug that was found in functional testing of a fairly complex part of the software. It could stem from bad/unexpected data in the database, middle-tier cod

Answer 1

In general, I start with the a subset of hypotheses that I consider the most likely culprits and then sort that subset of hypotheses by how easy each is to disprove, and start with the easiest.

Regardless of the order, the important thing is what you do with your hypothesis. Start trying to disprove each hypothesis rather than to verify it and you'll cover more ground (see Psychology of Intelligence Analysis by Richards J. Heuer, Jr., free PDF).