in Software Testing is a set of instructions that will
be performed on the System Under Test to test that the system functions as
expected. These steps can be executed manually or automatically. If executed
manually i.e. by a user of the system, this is commonly called a test case.
If executed automatically (ie, an automation tool) then the correct term is a
test script.
There are various means for executing test scripts.
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 manual functional GUI test tool (like
HP QuickTest Professional or Rational Software) or in a well-known
programming language (such as C++, C#, Tcl, Expect, Java, PHP, Perl, Python,
or more recently, Ruby).
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