Component-test plans are often designed by allocating system reliability among the system's components, then choosing individual component plans suitable for demonstrating achievcment of each component's reliability goal. This approach does not consider how much information relative to the system reliability goal is provided by the ensemble of component tests. We consider the notion of system reliability operating characteristic (OC) curves, based on the component tests, and illustrate their use in designing or evaluating an overall test program. By specifying OC values (akin to producer's and consumer's risks), optimum, system-ortented component-test plans can be derived. These ideas are illustrated for a series system, and for a simple series-parallel system, with binomial data.