Translating Expectations into Quality Directives

By David Loshin

1) The item must be directed to a specific recipient party (either an individual or an organization.)
2) The address must be a deliverable address.
3) The intended recipient must be associated with the deliverable address.
4) The delivery address must conform to the USPS standard.

Together these concepts have implications for address quality, and we can start with the first 3 concepts. The first concept implies a direct connection between entities: the sender and the recipient.

The corresponding business rule is relatively subtle - it suggests that the recipient must be identifiable to the sender. Concept #2 is a bit more direct: the address must be a deliverable address. This means that the address must carry enough information to enable a carrier to locate the address as a prelude to delivery. Concept #3 establishes a direct dependence between the recipient and the addressed location, implying awareness of that connection.

Together we can infer more discrete assertions:

• The address must be accurately mappable to a real location.
• The address must contain enough information to ensure delivery.
• The recipient must be a recognized entity.
• The recipient must be connected to the address.

In the next few posts we will figure out what these assertions really mean in terms of transforming a provided address into a complete, validated, and standardized address.