Just like its name, scripted testing based on prescripts elaborated by software testers to detect whether there are some functionalities not covered for the application at that moment. For example, a script doing a login, saving some data, and then retrieving it from another screen. The script defines the predefined data that the tester will use to evaluate each screen and the expected output. Then, the tester analyzes the results and reports any found defects to the application development team. Scripted testing can be performed manually by humans or can be supported by test automation through CI tools.

The advantage is that you can divide the work between your most experienced developers to write the scripts and the entry-level developers to run the script and analyze the data, giving maintenance and learning the business requirements.

The disadvantage is that it's hard to maintain if your UI changes frequently. This kind of testing is highly coupled with your business code so if it changes, the entire test should change too.