“Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius”
The role of consistency in success is so important that at times a consistent under performance will add more value than high performance that contributes inconsistently
Take the example of Manual Software Testing where the ability of the individual tester and the process that they adhere to together produce the expected results.
A few random thoughts on your journey to achieve a Consistent Manual testing effort
1. Following a religious Manual Software testing regime
Finding a ‘bag of bugs’ can’t always be attributed to a tester’s efficiency alone, what if the software was so faulty and that anyone with ample common sense and ingenuity could break it. Assuming that our software is not faulty we can give the credit of uncovering the bugs completely to the tester and explore further 
Does that information make our effort consistent, never!!!!…
If you do the activity for one month and skip a few months while you do development and changing the application functionality in the course you will be back to square one in the third month.
It is important that you have an ongoing manual testing effort for pre-defined hours daily, or at least monthly so that you can have the following achieved
- A continuous eye for defects
- A repeatable effort that can be Predictable in its outcome
- Building up of a Health Matrix that can add inputs to your development efficiency
2. A Process for Explorative Testing
Many organizations that resort to exploratory testing as an initial effort in manual testing often do not get the expected result for the lack of a proper process. While Ad-hoc discovery & intuitive testing contributes generously to the planning and organization of target Test areas, it is important that you have a structure in place before you embark
There are no quick replacements for a structured process as this is what ensures the predictability and consistency in any effort
Hence achieving consistency in testing begins with having a structured & documented Test bench to rely upon.
3. Maximizing Documentation
Even when you have a Test Bench in place the testing effort often stumbles upon many product behaviors that were not evident earlier. I recently happen to read about a framework QQA that I guess takes out a lot of ambiguity in managing an exploratory testing adventure. Consistent Testing is a result of Test bench management being in line with the Product functionality Change.
Maximized documentation is a core success factor in driving an explorative testing exercise and often the most overlooked. The Application Profiling activity as part of the QQA Framework is an interesting concept where you build a product functionality Matrix that can bring forth the testable behavior of an application and also map your test bench to the changing product functionality
Maximized documentation or Application Profiling techniques can also help considerably for having an even distribution of Test coverage among the participant Testers.
Bottom-line is that we need to have a process and structure along with a consistent effort invested monthly upon to get a predictable performance so that you can steer the ship through all weathers.
QA & Testing | Vinod | May 21, 2009 | 
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