Living in wormhole space is about 75% information gathering and 25% doing other stuff. The sheer number of tools that are available to provide and sort the large amounts of information required to be successful in w-space should give an idea as to how much it really is about what information you gather, what information you give away and how that information is used, either by you or by your enemy.
So read the rest of this post keeping in mind that out here, information and its utilization is the end-all, be-all of success.
In most cases your scouting is going to be informal and sort like shooting from the hip. Still, it's good to get into a few habits. Situational awareness (SA) is paramount in general, but especially so for scouts.
First off, you need to make sure that your overview settings are correctly setup for your specific mission. Make sure you have POS's, Force Fields, all ships and Mobile Warp Bubbles set to show up. I also have TCU's on mine as well as another tab that I can switch to in order to see cans that when seen in combination with warp bubbles on a POS likely indicates a de-cloak trap.
Speaking of cloaking, if you're not in a Helios you're doing it wrong. The Helios is the only scout ship with the ability to field a combat drone and all enemy scouts must die! Seriously, taking into consideration the critical nature of scouts if you can remove the enemy's ability to gather information you've all but won the engagement already. The Helios grants you a near guaranteed victory (unless you really suck) over other scouts because of its drone bay.
I'm sure some people will disagree, but they're F-tools so just ignore those plebeian masses and continue reading.
Now that you're in the right ship with the right overview settings it's almost time to get to work. But before heading out make sure you're aware of some of the basic information gathering and relaying tools.
I always have my corporation's chain-mapper, Dingo's, WormNav and Wormholes loaded on my IGB or very close at hand. Between these various tools I'm able to gather and relay a wealth of information.
The chain-mapper allows everyone to see where I am (and vice versa) as well as allowing me to see a visual representation of the wider terrain.
WormNav and Wormhol.es are very easy to use and give intel on trends of past activity in any system.
Dingo's is awesome. It allows the scout to create quick summaries of whatever the scout sees on his dscan. This site will then provide a short link that the scout can share with his fleet to relay that information very accurately and very quickly.
Scouts (or wouldbe scouts), if you relay bad intel you will either get your friends killed or prevent them from getting a kill. In either case, you will likely be killed.
"But, Malception, I don't want that to happen! Can you tell me how not to suck?"
Yes. If you would shut-up and listen I'm trying to get to that.
Take your time and do things by the numbers. It will be slow and tedious at first, but as you get used to doing it the pace will improve and you'll make less mistakes. In short, the way not to suck is to practice. Scan massive chains and take notes on every piece of information you can gather. Make bookmarks several hundred kilometers off of every wormhole you pass through (on both sides!), every active POS you find and create safe-spots in every system you discover.
You may not have to use these bookmarks often, but at some point you will need them and having them will give you an edge over your enemy.
Do you see a second principle emerging here? Preparation. Only through the gathering of information can you be properly prepared. If you are more prepared you will likely win. Unless you suck or unless Bob turns against you.
Anyway, just keep practicing.
Just as an example (this is certainly not the only way to do things) whenever I enter a new system in w-space I eyeball my overview to see whether or not there are any ships sitting on top of the wormhole which determines whether or not I have to deal with an immediate engagement.
Assuming for the sake of instruction that there are no ships I hold my cloak, hit my dscan, refresh the info pages on WormNav and Wormholes. I also check out the solar system map and see which planets, if any, are outside my dscan range. I grab all the signatures in system and put them in the chain-mapper's signature list. Finally, I burn off the wormhole and cloak up, changing direction as soon as I hit the cloak.
All of that should happen before your cloak timer deactivates. If for whatever reason I think I might run out of time, I go ahead and burn off/cloak/change direction, then go back to the information gathering.
After I burn off the wormhole and am safely cloaked up I'll usually make the bookmark then, but if you're micro skills are 31337 then go ahead and make the bookmark prior burning off the wormhole.
The point in all of this is to get as much information as you can in as short a time-frame as possible while minimizing your own exposure to death and dismemberment. This also minimizes the time in which your enemy has the opportunity to gather information about you.
Now, let me go back to the when I first jumped through the wormhole for a second. If there was a ship on the wormhole I have to make a split-second decision. If it's a scout ship (Anathema, Buzzard or Probe) I'm going to decloak and engage them with my long-point and Hobgoblin II. If it's anything other than that I'm going to perform the exact same steps I've already described.
The reason I wouldn't engage a Helios is because the fight is probably going to be evenly matched and 50-50 odds are little on the high-side for my liking. I'd likely see if he warps off or jumps through the wormhole before dropping cloak. If he does leave then I've learned quite a bit, but he's learned virtually nothing. If he does hang around and I have to drop cloak then I'll burn off and cloak.
At this point you've infiltrated the area and you're now behind enemy lines, so-to-speak. What next? In the interest of time you'll have to check back later. Until then, take your time and pay attention.
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