I did a bit of testing at my previous employer, where I was the hiring manager, but it was in the interview (so candidates had no choice). I think that is a nice compromise--the candidate is fairly far along in the process, and you can still learn a lot about a developer with a small project. Granted, these were junior positions.
As far as (b), I have no experience in this, but I can think of problems for a non technical person to fulfill. If confronted with doing this, I'd just ask the hiring manager to list 2-3 pressing problems and have the candidate outline a solution to one of them. Maybe I'm missing the thrust of your question?
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I did a bit of testing at my previous employer, where I was the hiring manager, but it was in the interview (so candidates had no choice). I think that is a nice compromise--the candidate is fairly far along in the process, and you can still learn a lot about a developer with a small project. Granted, these were junior positions.
As far as (b), I have no experience in this, but I can think of problems for a non technical person to fulfill. If confronted with doing this, I'd just ask the hiring manager to list 2-3 pressing problems and have the candidate outline a solution to one of them. Maybe I'm missing the thrust of your question?