diff --git a/configure.sh b/configure.sh
index 15059e1..ab7f543 100755
--- a/configure.sh
+++ b/configure.sh
@@ -32,8 +32,11 @@
 
 tempest_configuration () {
   sub_name=`date "+%H_%M_%S"`
-  # default tempest version is now 17.2.0
-  tempest_version='17.2.0'
+  # default tempest version is 17.2.0 now, unless
+  # it is explicitly defined in pipelines
+  if [ "$tempest_version" == "" ]; then
+      tempest_version='17.2.0'
+  fi
   if [ "$PROXY" == "offline" ]; then
     rally verify create-verifier --name tempest_verifier_$sub_name --type tempest --source $TEMPEST_REPO --system-wide --version $tempest_version
     rally verify add-verifier-ext --source /var/lib/telemetry-tempest-plugin