Will BO BI Platform and BO Client tools always require matching versions?

Hello,

In the company I work for, there are many users for Business Objects Reports and BO client tools. Since the platform version and the client tools version must match, we have to use different sets of machines to test, and then coordinate for over 100 users on installs of the client tools to match the platform.

While testing in our development branch, users/developers would be unable to use the tools on their PC for the production branch because of the version mismatch. This would cause a significant hindrance in the workload because users with the new version would not be able to connection to the development machines, likewise the users with the old version would not be able to connect to the production machines.

Is there someway to put backwards compatibility in the current packages (SP06) to enable step upgrades and testing before being released to production?

IE we are upgrading from SBOP BI 4.2 SP03 Patch2 to SBOP BI 4.2 SP06 (which I am sure will have more patches