Self-certification and trust in component procurement

This article proposes the combination of two contrasting technologies, component brokerage at one end of the component technology spectrum, and built-in contract testing at its other end, that combined, may alleviate the efforts involved in component certification. This is achieved through the access mechanisms that built-in contract testing provides for components, and additional tester components through which customers can themselves assess the quality of a candidate component that is coming from a broker. Every such extended component is added to the certification according to well-defined standards, that are provided by a third party on behalf of the supplier.