How to Manage Localization Quality in Four Stages

Localization quality is a crucial factor for the success of any global product or service. However, managing localization quality can be challenging, especially when dealing with large volumes of content, multiple languages, and diverse markets. In this article, I will share four stages of localization quality management:

• Stage 1: Initiation

• Stage 2: Quality Assurance

• Stage 3: Quality Management

• Stage 4: Quality Enablement

Stage 1: Initiation

The first stage of localization quality management is Initiation. Initiation stage is to set up the basic localization infrastructure that will support the translation and review processes. This includes:

• Setting up translation memories (TMs), term bases (TBs), and style guides for each language and product. These are essential tools that help ensure consistency, accuracy, and adherence to the client’s brand voice and tone.

• Inviting subject matter experts (SMEs) to review the translation style guides and glossaries, and provide feedback and approval. This helps ensure that the translation guidelines reflect the internal client’s expectations and preferences, and that the terminology is correct and relevant for the target audience.

• Establishing a workflow and communication channel between the client, the translation vendor, and the reviewers. This helps ensure that the project requirements, deadlines, and deliverables are clear and agreed upon by all parties.

The cost of translation and review in this stage is relatively low, as the volume of content is usually small and limited to the core assets. The quality of translation and review is also low, as there is no formal quality assurance (QA) program in place yet.

Stage 2: Quality Assurance

The second stage of localization quality management is to set up a quality assurance (QA) program that will monitor and measure the quality of translation and review. This includes:

• Taking the majority of the reviews away from the client reviewers and outsourcing the review work to a review vendor. This helps reduce the workload and cost for the client, as well as ensure a more objective and consistent review process.

• Reviewing specific contents that are critical for the user experience, such as user interface (UI), help center, marketing materials, legal documents, etc. These contents require a higher level of attention and expertise, as they directly affect the user satisfaction and trust.

• Implementing a linguistic quality assessment (LQA) process that evaluates the translation and review quality based on predefined criteria and metrics, such as error categories, severity levels, error rates, etc. This helps identify and quantify the quality issues, as well as provide feedback and corrective actions to the translation and review vendors.

The cost of translation and review in this stage increases significantly, as the volume of content grows with the expansion of products and markets. The quality of translation and review also increases generally, but may drop occasionally due to various factors, such as tight deadlines, complex contents, new languages, etc.

Stage 3: Quality Management

The third stage of localization quality management is to set up a quality management system that will analyze and improve the quality of translation and review. This includes:

• Setting up metrics that track and report the key performance indicators (KPIs) of translation and review quality, such as error rates, customer satisfaction scores, return on investment (ROI), etc. These metrics help evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the QA program, as well as provide insights for decision making.

• Managing the translation and review vendors by providing regular feedback, training, incentives, penalties, etc. This helps motivate and align the vendors with the client’s quality goals and expectations, as well as foster a long-term partnership.

• Implementing process improvement initiatives that aim to optimize the localization workflow, reduce errors, increase productivity, save costs, etc. These initiatives may include adopting new technologies, tools, methods, best practices, etc.

The cost of translation and review in this stage continues to increase with the growing demand for localization. However, the cost of review may start to decrease due to the improved quality of translation. The quality of translation and review also increases steadily in this stage, as the QA program becomes more mature and effective.

Stage 4: Quality Enablement

The fourth stage of localization quality management is to set up a quality enablement program that will empower and educate the internal teams on localization best practices. This includes:

• Sharing localization knowledge with internal teams such as product development, marketing, sales, support, etc. This helps raise awareness and understanding of localization among different stakeholders within the organization.

• Optimizing linguistic assets such as TMs, TBs, style guides by updating them regularly based on feedback from internal teams or external sources. This helps ensure that the linguistic assets are accurate, consistent, and up-to-date.

• Training translation and review vendors to learn the company’s product features, functions, advantages, etc. This helps enhance the vendor’s domain knowledge and skills, as well as improve the quality and relevance of translation and review.

• Implementing further process improvement initiatives that aim to streamline the localization workflow, increase collaboration, enhance user experience, etc.

• Setting up a quality data dashboard that displays the real-time status and trends of translation and review quality, as well as the impact of localization on the business outcomes. This helps provide a holistic and transparent view of localization performance and value.

The cost of translation and review in this stage may decrease or stabilize due to the reduced errors, increased efficiency, and optimized resources. The quality of translation and review also reaches a high level in this stage, as the localization process becomes more agile and user-focused.

Conclusion

Localization quality management is a dynamic and continuous process that requires constant monitoring, measurement, and improvement. This artivle shared 4 stages of localization quality management. The LPM may adopt the most suitable measure based on the where the team is.