1. A method for associating software components with vendor hardware module versions in an open architecture test system, comprising: receiving a set of hardware versions of a vendor hardware module; receiving a set of software components supported by the vendor hardware module; processing the set of hardware versions, wherein the set of hardware versions is represented as an equivalence class of hardware version numbers using a mask value; obtaining user choices of hardware versions of the vendor hardware module; validating the user choices of hardware versions of the vendor hardware module; and creating a system profile in accordance with the user choices of hardware versions.