A test script in

software testing Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations. Software testing can provide objective, independent information about the Quality (business), quality of software and the risk of its failure to a User (computin ...

is a set of instructions that will be performed on the system under test to test that the system functions as expected.

Types of test scripts

There are various means for executing test scripts. These last two types are also done in manual testing. *

Manual testing :''Compare with Test automation''. Manual testing is the process of manually Software testing, testing software for defects. It requires a tester to play the role of an end user where by they use most of the application's features to ensure corre ...

. These are more commonly called

test case In software engineering, a test case is a specification of the inputs, execution conditions, testing procedure, and expected results that define a single test to be executed to achieve a particular software testing objective, such as to exercise ...

s. * Automated testing. ** Short program written in a programming language used to test part of the functionality of a software system. Test scripts written as a short program can either be written using a special automated functional GUI test tool (such as HP QuickTest Professional, Borland SilkTest, IBM TPNS and Rational Robot) or in a well-known

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

(such as C++, C#,

Tcl TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to: Business * TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company ** TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology * Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league * Trade Centre Limited ...

, Expect,

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

PHP PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared towards web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by the PHP Group. ...

Perl Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Though Perl is not officially an acronym, there are various backronyms in use, including "Practical Extraction and Reporting Language". Perl was developed ...

Powershell PowerShell is a shell program developed by Microsoft for task automation and configuration management. As is typical for a shell, it provides a command-line interpreter for interactive use and a script interpreter for automation via a langu ...

, Python, or

Ruby Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapph ...

). As documented in IEEE, ISO and IEC. ** Extensively parameterized short programs a.k.a. Data-driven testing ** Reusable steps created in a table a.k.a. keyword-driven or table-driven testing.

Usage and functionality

Automated testing may be executed continuously without the need for human intervention, they are easily repeatable, and often faster. Automated tests are useful in situations where the test is to be executed several times, for example as part of

regression testing Regression testing (rarely, ''non-regression testing'') is re-running functional and non-functional tests to ensure that previously developed and tested software still performs as expected after a change. If not, that would be called a '' regr ...

. Automated tests can be disadvantageous when poorly written, leading to incorrect testing or broken tests being carried out. Automated tests can, like any piece of software, be poorly written or simply break during playback. They also can only examine what they have been programmed to examine. Since most systems are designed with human interaction in mind, it is good practice that a human tests the system at some point. A trained manual tester can notice that the system under test is misbehaving without being prompted or directed; automated tests can only examine what they have been programmed to examine. When used in regression testing, manual testers can find new bugs while ensuring that old bugs do not reappear while an automated test can only ensure the latter. Mixed testing, with automated and manual testing, is often used; automating what needs to be tested often and can be easily checked by a machine, and using manual testing to do test design and exploratory testing. One should consider the

return on investment Return on investment (ROI) or return on costs (ROC) is the ratio between net income (over a period) and investment (costs resulting from an investment of some resources at a point in time). A high ROI means the investment's gains compare favorab ...

for automating any given test script, i.e. does the cost to build and maintain that script cost less than it would take to simply execute it manually. Where cost can be measured in terms of time and/or money but also the

opportunity cost In microeconomic theory, the opportunity cost of a choice is the value of the best alternative forgone where, given limited resources, a choice needs to be made between several mutually exclusive alternatives. Assuming the best choice is made, ...

of not freeing up people to do other work.

References

Software testing {{Soft-eng-stub

Types of test scripts

Usage and functionality

See also

References