The compatibility budget

Budget reference for browser-matrix-strategy-reference: decide how large a compatibility matrix the team can afford and publish that commitment - tier-1 (must work; per-PR) vs tier-2 (must work; nightly) vs tier-3 (should work; pre-release) vs unsupported, with example budgets per product type, the matrix-size cost / coverage trade-off, and "what we support" external templates. The main skill's tier heuristics pick WHICH browsers belong in each tier; this reference caps HOW MANY and publishes the policy.

Overview

Without an explicit budget, "compatibility" creeps:

• An engineer adds a Firefox-only fix; the team commits to Firefox forever.
• A user complains about Internet Explorer; an engineer checks for IE; tests now must run on IE.
• A new Chrome version breaks something; the team scrambles reactively.

A compatibility budget is a deliberate decision: which configurations the team commits to support, at what tier, with what consequences for unsupported configurations.

When to use

• A new product launches; team needs to decide initial support.
• An existing product's compatibility statement needs auditing.
• A bug report comes in for an unsupported configuration; the team needs the documented stance.
• A contractual obligation requires a compatibility statement.

How to use

1. Pick the product type and copy the closest example budget from compatibility-budget-tiers.md.
2. Assign each candidate browser / OS / runtime combo a tier - Tier 1, 2, 3, or unsupported (§1).
3. Count combos per tier against the cost / coverage trade-off (§3); if CI cost exceeds budget, demote the lowest-value combos.
4. Reconcile the Tier 1 list with user-agent telemetry (§6) so it matches real traffic.
5. Publish the external "what we support" statement (§4).
6. Schedule a quarterly review (§5) to promote or retire combos as versions evolve.

§1 - Tier model

Four tiers signal engineering investment, not user importance - a low-traffic configuration under contractual obligation may still be Tier 1:

• Tier 1 - must work; per-PR smoke.
• Tier 2 - must work; nightly full suite.
• Tier 3 - should work; pre-release manual / weekly.
• Unsupported - out of scope; bugs closed as "not supported."

Full definitions and CI cadence: compatibility-budget-tiers.md.

§2 - Example budget per product type

Worked starting budgets for a modern web app, an internal SaaS, an open-source library, and a mobile native app are tabulated in compatibility-budget-tiers.md. Copy the closest template and adjust each combo's tier against your telemetry (§6).

§3 - Cost / coverage trade-off

The budget directly affects CI cost:

CI cost = N_tier1 × per_PR_cost + N_tier2 × nightly_cost + N_tier3 × manual_review_cost

For a typical web product (5 Tier 1 configs + 2 Tier 2 + 4 Tier 3):

• Tier 1: 5 × ~30 PRs/day × ~3 min = ~7.5 hours/day of CI runner time per PR-set.
• Tier 2: 2 × 1 nightly × ~30 min = ~1 hour/day.
• Tier 3: 4 × ~weekly × ~4 hours of manual time = manual budget.

A team's CI budget caps the total; the budget shapes the matrix.

§4 - "What we support" template

Publish externally (docs, marketing, README):

# Browser / OS support

We officially support:

## Tier 1 (per-release tested)
- Chrome (current + 1 prior major version)
- Edge (current)
- Safari (current + 1 prior major version)
- iOS Safari (current + 1 prior major version)
- Chrome on Android (current)

## Tier 2 (nightly tested; bugs fixed within 1 release)
- Firefox (current)

## Tier 3 (best-effort; bugs may take longer to fix)
- Firefox on Android
- Samsung Internet

## Unsupported
- Internet Explorer 11 - last supported v1.4.0 (EOL 2025-12-31).
- Chrome < version 100 - security vulnerabilities; not supported.
- Older mobile OSes - see mobile platform support table.

If you experience an issue on a Tier 3 or unsupported configuration,
please open an issue but understand the priority is lower.

The external statement sets user expectations; the internal tiers guide engineering.

§5 - Quarterly review

Browsers / OS / runtime versions evolve; the budget needs review:

§6 - User-agent telemetry → budget

If the team has analytics on browser / OS distribution, use it:

The 80/20 rule: if a configuration has <1% usage, Tier 3 or unsupported. If <0.1%, unsupported.

Worked example

A mid-size web app team caps its browser scope:

• Tier 1 - 6 combos, per-PR smoke: Chrome current + prior, Edge current, Safari current + prior, iOS Safari current, Chrome on Android current. Telemetry (§6) shows these cover ~90% of traffic.
• Tier 2 - 4 combos, nightly: Firefox current, Safari prior, iOS Safari prior, Samsung Internet.
• Tier 3 - best-effort: Firefox on Android; anything below Chrome 100.
• Unsupported: Internet Explorer; Chrome < 100.

Cost check (§3): 6 Tier 1 combos on per-PR smoke stay inside the CI budget while 4 Tier 2 combos run once nightly. The team publishes the §4 support statement listing the three tiers plus the unsupported set, then calendars the §5 quarterly review. Result: cross-browser scope is capped at 10 committed combos behind a documented, defensible support policy.

§7 - Compatibility statement vs accessibility commitment

These are different:

• Compatibility: which configurations the product runs on.
• Accessibility: which assistive technologies the product supports (per WCAG conformance - see wcag-compliance-reporter in the qa-accessibility plugin).

A user with a screen reader on Tier 1 Chrome should have Tier 1 accessibility experience. The two budgets compose.

Anti-patterns

Limitations

• Telemetry availability. Without analytics, the budget is guesswork.
• Vendor lifecycle visibility. Browser / OS EOL dates aren't always announced far in advance.
• User population may differ from telemetry. Users hitting bug reports may use older browsers than the active user base.
• "Best-effort" Tier 3 is squishy. Define the SLO explicitly (e.g., "Tier 3 bugs reviewed monthly; no SLA on fix").

References

• compatibility-budget-tiers.md - detailed tier definitions and per-product-type example budgets.
• playwright-testing (references/browser-matrix.md) - the bundled-engine runner this budget configures.
• github-actions-test-jobs (in the qa-ci-integration plugin, references/os-matrix.md) - sibling for the OS / runtime matrix.
• mobile-device-matrix-toolkit (in the qa-mobile plugin) - mobile-specific equivalent.
• wcag-compliance-reporter - accessibility compliance complement to the compatibility budget.