Definition
The process of testing a system with each of the configurations of software and hardware that are supported.
Comment
Typically the cost of this type of testing is small (since regression tests are re-run within the appropriate environment), but the benefit is very large (since small changes often have dramatic and unexpected impacts - especially on web-based systems). For this reason, this type of testing is both cost effective and provides additional confidence to both developers and users.


On many programmes and large projects, testing will take up a significant portion of the budget. But it will receive less management attention than an activity of this size warrants.