How to Avoid Delivery Risks in Localization Projects

Delivery risks are the potential threats that may cause delays, errors, or failures in the localization process. Late delivery is a common issue that all localization project managers (LPMs) would like to avoid. Most of the late deliveries can be prevented. In this article, I will analyze the root causes of the late deliveries and share some solutions.

Unrealistic Expectations

Some stakeholders may not possess knowledge about localization. They may drop the task to the LPM without notice and request an unrealistic turnaround.

The LPM should evangelize localization to stakeholders so that they can understand what to expect. The LPM should also keep a close relationship with the stakeholders to track the content creation progress and predict their needs. The LPMs can get themselves involved in development meetings and ask their stakeholders to give them a heads up when there are new contents.

There are some contents such as marketing materials, internal corporate policies, legal files, that do need to be localized in a short turnaround on a routine basis. In this case, the LPM can set up a program to satisfy this need.

Quality Issues

Quality issues are another major cause of late deliveries. Quality issues can be classified into two categories: internal complaints on content and issues identified during the post-localization testing stage.

Internal Complaints on Content

“My previous vendor has translated most of the contents and my internal team told me the translation is completely not usable.” This is one of the most common questions from the content owners. This issue is more complex than “the vendor is bad”. There are several reasons that could cause this issue:

• The internal reviewer is not proficient in the target language. Some internal reviewers may understand a little about the target language or speak a different locale of the target languages (e.g., Fr_FR vs fr_CA).

• The translation is grammatically correct and well accepted, but does not meet the preference of the internal team. In other words, the issues flagged by the internal teams are preferential issues.

• The quality is not satisfactory. There are lots of objective errors.

This can be avoided in most of the cases by adjusting vendor structures, communicating preferences, setting up and maintaining glossary and translation memories, arranging test translations, optimizing QA workflows and etc.

Issues Identified During the Post-Localization Testing Stage

After the localized files are imported back to the software or website, a post-localization tester tests the website or software by clicking the buttons according to the testing script. In this process three types of issues might be identified: linguistic issues (e.g., The translation does not fit the context), formatting issues (text truncated due to language expansion), and functional issues (button does not work due to code issues).

These issues are not likely to be avoided due to the nature of current localization technology and process. However, they can be minimized by providing linguists more context and evangelizing internationalization best practices to development teams.

Internal Delays

Unclear scope or incomplete source

Sometimes the source files are not provided with the right format or the files are not complete. Sometimes the scope is not clear. If the files and requests are directly passed to the vendors, the vendors may put the project on hold until they can get the answers, which would delay the project and cause late delivery.

The LPM should validate the files before they send the files to the vendors. If they have any questions on the source files, the LPM should immediately notify the requester and ask for updated files or clarifications. In the long run, the LPM can also put up a checklist based on project types or file types for the internal teams.

Insufficient Internal supports

Localization can involve other teams, such as content reviewers, SMEs, software engineers. Localization may not be their top priority. They may not be able to complete the tasks assigned to them on time. In this case, the LPM should do the following:

• Negotiate with internal teams by standing on their feet

• Break the project into smaller tasks

• Leave enough buffer time for internal teams to complete the tasks

• Consider the value of the tasks carefully before assigning tasks to the internal teams

• Be prepared to cancel some tasks that do not compromise the quality

  
  

Miscommunication

There might be miscommunications in the projects. For example, the LPM may think they have already requested the vendors to start the projects, but the vendors may think the LPM is likely to approve the project and are waiting for approval. Another common example is that the project may be approved after the expected start date and the start date may not be counted in the overall turnaround. This could cause the internal requester, LPM, and vendor to have different expectations on the delivery date.

To avoid this scenario, the LPM should use clear language and specify the delivery date during kick-off such as “The quote is approved. I’m expecting this project to be delivered by 5 PM next Friday.” instead of vague language such as “This quote looks good.”

If the approval is delayed, the LPM should also inform the internal team to make sure everyone is on the same page. “As the project was approved on X day, and the turnaround we agreed is Y business days. We are aiming to deliver the project by 5 PM Z day.”

Technology Glitches

Some companies use third-party language management plug-ins or APIs to connect their content management systems and the LSP’s translation management system. Sometimes due to connection issues, the company is not able to send the source or pull back translated content. When technology issue happens, some characters may not be shown properly or some source text may not be covered for translation.

To avoid this, the LPM can test the connector by asking the LSP to provide pseudo translations. Pseudo-translations are a way of simulating how a text will look like after localization by replacing some characters or words with symbols or dummy text. This can help identify potential issues such as text expansion, truncation, encoding errors, missing strings, etc.

Linguistic Queries

Linguistic queries could also cause delays. Linguists may have questions about preferences, context and meanings of the source text. The projects might be delayed if the questions are not answered on time.

To avoid this, the LPM should prepare language assets such as glossary, style guides, and reference materials before starting a project to lower the frequency of linguistic queries. The LPM can also use a query management system or set up a query sheet to reduce repetitive questions and increase efficiency.

Urgent Requests

There are several situations that can lead to urgent translation requests. In some special industries, such as sea sailing safety, there are usually unexpected urgent translation requests due to unforeseen weather conditions. Or some companies would like to have translations in place when urgent issues happen, such as when the server is down.

The LPM should understand where the emergency may come from, what the turnaround expectations would be, and what the risk associated with the emergency is. Then set up a program in advance to meet the need and expectation.

Usually, there are three possible solutions:

1. Pre-translate the emergency message: If the emergency message is foreseeable, the LPM can request these messages from internal teams and pre-translate them. For eample: "The server is down. Our engineers are working as fast as possible to bring the site back. Thanks for your patients"

2. Utilize the power of machine translation: If the emergency message is not foreseeable, but the message is short and easy to understand, the LPM can assess the risks of possible mistranslation with internal teams and decide if it's possible to set up an API with machine translation. When urgent translations are needed, the message can be sent through machine translation and get translated in minutes or even seconds.

3. 7*24-hour coverage from a language service provider: In some cases, the source has to be translated with human translation for accuracy and delivered back in hours. The messages are not foreseeable. The LPM can find a language service provider (LSP) that can provide 24-hour coverage service and negotiate an SLA. The LSP can set up a dedicated team awaiting the urgent request. They can respond immediately and deliver within the agreed SLA. The service is usually expensive but sometimes can save lives..