I feel our industry (testing, but also software development in general) is focused on finding shortcuts. We don’t have enough people talking about developing focus (like you are here), skill (like James, Jon, and Michael do), or practice. I’m not a big methodology guy (in general I’m just as happy on an “Agile” project as I am on a waterfall project), but one of the things I find refreshing in the agile community is the focus on skill. There is little room in the methodology for people who can’t carry their own weight. I like that.

The progression of the bug report above, is a fantastic example of practicing/refining your craft while performing your everyday work. I love seeing examples of that. While I suspect testers won’t be able to do that with every bug they find, even doing it once or twice a week would pay off in the long run. Because over time you would do it naturally. Eventually the first summary you right will capture the essence of the problem.