Software Validation Flow 1/31/08

Software Validation Levels 1.Who is eligible: Both software vendors and mail preparers or owners. Those who prepare eDoc and ePostage others submit to PostalOne or submit eDoc and ePostage to PostalOne. 2.Levels of validation eDoc or ePostage. Mail.dat or WWS. 3.PAVE is a possible prerequisite if the product offers presort.

Customer Company Steps 1.Customer company applies for software validation. 2.NCSC sends package containing test description and test file and information for user tests. 3.Customer runs files into the PostalOne Pilot environment. 4.After a result the customer believes is correct customer requests a compare to the correct eDoc and ePostage.

Software Vendor Or Mailer Valid File Preparer (Postal Service) 2. Mail.dat or WWS 1. File describing mailing PostalOne creates EDoc and Postage Statement:

Software Vendor Or Mailer 3. Mail.dat or WWS PostalOne creates EDoc and Postage Statement: 4. EDoc & Postage Stmt

Software Vendor Or Mailer PostalOne creates EDoc and Postage Statement: Compare EDoc and Postage Statement Step 2 and 3 (Postal Service) If comparison is within tolerance. result = validate 5. Request compare 6. Send result

Software Vendor Or Mailer 3. Mail.dat or WWS Valid File Preparer (Postal Service) 2. Mail.dat or WWS 1. File describing mailing PostalOne creates EDoc and Postage Statement: Compare EDoc and Postage Statement Step 2 and 3 (Postal Service) If comparison is within tolerance. result = validate 4. EDoc & Postage Stmt 5. Request compare 6. Send result

Customer User Steps 1.Each user of the software passes an open book test. 2.The source of information is the IDEAlliance Mail.dat Specification or the WWS user guide and the PostalOne user guide. 3.User is certified in the appropriate category: eDoc WWS, eDoc Mail.dat, ePostage WWS and ePostage Mail.dat.

Questions Format for files describing the mailings? Should we use mail.dat files or WWS files with errors that a mailer might inadvertently send to see if the customer can find and fix the error? How many questions each category? Can they be multiple choice for possible auto checking? Should test questions be randomly drawn from a larger pool of questions? Keeping up to date: what triggers re-validation and re-testing?