Forum posts to 'Process and Timelines'

Implementation of Content Management and Globalization Management Systems

Yusuke — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:05:34 -0600

Balancing low cost, fast turnaround, and high quality output for localization is always a challenge. Especially in the Medical and Healthcare industry, the translation quality must not suffer over cost or fast turnarounds, but same demand on the cost and turn times exists none the less. With tool automation advancements such as Content Management Systems (CMS) and Globalization Management Systems (CMS), the localization industry is in a better place to achieve this ‘faster, better, cheaper’ goal, but it does come with some caveats.
You must invest financially as well as devote time for the careful planning, implementation, and maintenance into the CMS or GMS. Do you have 2 million words or 20,000 words of source content that requires localization? Do you require constant updates in the localized content? Do you require extensive layout automation? No doubt GMS implementation is the way of the future for rapid deployment of localized content, but current offerings can be cost prohibitive and resource intensive. Do a thorough analysis to make sure you invest in what suits your company's localization requirements/needs.

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Planning + Scheduling In-Country Reviews

Mimi — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:02:46 -0700

Planning for and scheduling in-country review cycles at the start of a localization project can help avoid timely delays once the project is underway.

The first point of discussion between customers and localization vendors should be to determine whether a glossary is being created and if it will be reviewed before the start of translation. Reviewing the glossary and providing feedback during this stage of the project helps establish a foundation for all subsequent terminology and potentially minimize the number of changes later in the project.

A second point of discussion should be to discuss the process for reviews, including how review comments should be returned to the localization vendor and what types of comments are included in the project budget (and which are not). It is also helpful to determine whether time should be set aside for the linguist and reviewer to discuss the changes and answer any questions. To make the process as straightforward as possible, the in-country reviewer should clearly mark what term should be changed, what the term should be changed to and whether the change is a one-time only change or whether the change should be applied globally throughout the materials.

Finally, it is critical to establish a timeline for the review. Although the duration will depend on the in-country reviewer’s schedule, most reviews are scheduled for five business days in order to complete the project as soon as possible. (In some cases, if materials are not very extensive, a shorter duration may be more appropriate. Or, if the materials are quite extensive, more than five business days may be needed. This can be determined on a project-by-project basis.)

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Re: Applying Crowdsourcing to Medical/Life Sciences

dhdunn — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:44:11 -0700

Rebecca, crowdsourcing is definitely an interesting concept in translations and localization. There are certain types of translation environments where crowdsourcing might make some sence - games for smartphones, for instance. Those types of applications are very small, and the translation quality, while it ideally should be very high does not need to be in order to maintain the health and wellbeing of consumers of that product.

Within the Medical and Life Sciences world, however, crowdsourcing would be at best a very difficult way to maintain any sort of quality standards when translating. At worst, the translations would be potentially dangerous.

Clients who do business within regulated industries, such as FDA-regulated companies, need to have a very clear idea who is doing what at all stages of product development, and that definitely includes translations/localization. Many of ENLASO's medical and life sciences clients require translation certification, and that requires, in turn, that we know what the qualifications of our linguists are.

When translation is done in a crowdsourcing model, that is almost impossible to control. There are many other aspects of the project flow that would also not be controlled in a way that would be anywhere near adequate to FDA-regulated, or EC-regulated, clients.

So, while crowdsourcing may be okay for things like small phone-based applications, for any content on whose quality end users' lives depends, it's just not a solution that would work.

Thanks!!

dhdunn

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Applying Crowdsourcing to Medical/Life Sciences

Gazelle — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:59:24 -0600

I recently finished a report for the Localization Industry Standards Association (www.lisa.org) on how software companies are applying crowdsourcing to their translation/localization requirements. Would any of you consider applying it, since you work in a regulated industry? Why or why not?

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