What To Do When Facing a Late Delivery

Localization project managers (LPMs) are responsible for delivering high-quality localized content to their clients on time and within budget. However, sometimes unexpected situations may arise that can cause potential delays in the delivery of a localization project. In this article, we will discuss some of the common scenarios that can lead to late deliveries and how to handle them effectively.

Before we dive into the solutions, we need to define the situation clearly. We assume that all measures to prevent late deliveries are taken and the LPMs have performed due diligence. This article only discusses unexpected situations that are beyond the control of the LPMs and the vendors.

General Guideline

When facing a potential late delivery, the LPMs should follow these general steps:

1. Keep Calm: The emotions can be passed along to the vendors and the internal teams, which can affect the communication and the relationship. The LPMs should remain professional and courteous at all times.

2. Ask for Extention: Understand if the translation must be returned on an exact date. If not, ask for an extension. Sometimes the deadlines are flexible and can be adjusted according to the situation. The LPMs should communicate with the requester, explain the reasons for the delay, and request for more time if possible.

3. Prioritize: If it is a hard deadline, understand which content need to be prioritized. Some content may be more critical than others, such as marketing materials, user interface, or legal documents. The LPMs should identify the priority of the content and focus on delivering them first.

4. Rolling Delivery: If all contents have the same prioity level, negotiate with the requester and see if the translation can be delivered on a rolling basis. Instead of waiting for the whole project to be completed, the LPMs can ask the clients if they can accept partial deliveries of the translation. This way, the clients can start using or reviewing some of the content while waiting for the rest.

   
   

3 Late delivery situations and solutions

Now let’s look at some specific situations that can cause potential late deliveries and how to solve them.

Situation 1: Linguists’ personal situations

Linguists’ personal situations may cause late deliveries. For example, the linguists do not have enough capacity, are sick, or affected by extreme weathers.

In this situation, one option is to ask the vendor to switch linguists. However, this may have some drawbacks, such as:

• The new linguists may not be familiar with your company or products, which can lower the quality of the translation.

• The new linguists may not have access to the previous linguists’ work, such as glossaries, style guides, or translation memories, which can affect the consistency of the translation.

• The new linguists may need more time to get up to speed with the project requirements and expectations, which can delay the delivery further.

Another option is to stick with the original linguists and extend the deadline. This may have some advantages, such as:

• The original linguists have already invested time and effort in understanding your company and products, which can ensure a higher-quality translation.

• The original linguists have already used your preferred tools and resources, such as glossaries, style guides, or translation memories, which can ensure a consistent translation.

• The original linguists have already established a rapport with you and your vendor, which can facilitate smoother communication and collaboration.

The best solution depends on several factors, such as:

• How much time is left until the deadline?

• How much content is left to be translated?

• How important is the quality of the translation?

• How flexible is the internal client with the deadline?

The LPMs should consider these factors and weigh the pros and cons of each option. Then they should:

• Check with the vendor and see what are the options. Ask the vendor what would be the updated ETA if stick with the original linguists. And if switch linguists, would they be able to deliver the project on time?

• Be transparent with the client about the situation. Ask the client if they can extend the deadline. If so, would they accept the updated ETA? If not, inform them that the quality might be lowered due to switching to other linguists.

  
  

Situation 2: Unexpected Projects

Unexpected projects may cause late delivery. For example, an urgent company announcement was sent to the LPM by the end of the day and the requester expects to receive the translation by the next morning.

The LPM should treat this project as a top priority and inform the vendor immediately and address the urgency with the vendor. Sometimes the vendor may charge a 15%-50% rush fee.

If possible, the LPM should quickly make an estimation on the cost and communicate the cost with the requester as soon as possible to avoid wasting time on seeking approval. If the requester agrees with the cost range, the LPM can tell the vendor the project is pre-approved within the cost range to save some time.

There are several other solutions. Such as asking the vendor to use other offices around the world to complete the project. Or adopting Machine Translation Post Editing (MTPE) on this particular project. The LPM would need to use their experience and make their best judgment based on turnaround, quality, budget, and content types.

Situation 3: Quality Issues

Quality issues may cause late delivery. For example, all the translations are done but the internal reviewers believe the translation does not meet the quality. And they think the translation needs to be re-translated.

There are three possible situations:

• There are no actual quality issues. The internal team is not proficient in the target language. The LPM should explain the issue validation feedback to the internal team and make them feel assured.

• The translation has no objective issues but do not meet the internal team’s preferences. In this case, the LPM can negotiate with the internal team to publish the content first and make updates later.

• The translation has actual objective issues. (eg. Grammar mistake, terminology mistake, did not follow the style guide and etc.) In this case, the LPM can ask the vendor to fix the translation immediately and request for the time estimate. Then communicate this with the internal team. At this point, the vendor would tend to use the best resources and fix the issues ASAP.

  
  

Long term solutions

Besides the short term solutions, the LPMs should also consider some long term solutions that can help the company to avoid late delivery in the future. Here are some of the possible solutions:

1. Collaborate with global vendor teams

One of the benefits of working with a global vendor is that they can leverage their resources across different time zones and regions. This can help to speed up the delivery and handle urgent requests. The LPMs should ask the vendor to set up global teams for their projects and have the team’s contact info available to all stakeholders. This way, the LPMs can communicate with the vendor more efficiently and effectively, and also have a backup plan in case of any issues.

2. Expand the pool of linguists

Another way to avoid late delivery is to expand the pool of linguists that can work on your projects. This can help to increase the capacity and availability of the linguists, and also reduce the risk of relying on a few linguists. The LPMs should work with the vendor to recruit and train more linguists that are qualified and experienced in your company and products. The LPMs should also monitor the performance and feedback of the linguists and provide them with regular coaching and guidance.

3. Keep linguistic assets updated and accessible

One of the challenges of switching linguists is that they may not be familiar with your content and style, which can affect the quality and consistency of the translation. To overcome this challenge, the LPMs should maintain linguistic assets, such as wiki, query sheet, glossary, translation memory, etc., that can help the linguists to understand your content and expectations better. The LPMs should update these assets regularly and share them with the vendor and the linguists. The LPMs should also encourage the linguists to use these assets and provide feedback on them.

4. Train NMT engine and setup MTPE program

Machine translation (MT) is a technology that can help to accelerate the translation process and reduce the cost. However, MT may not always produce accurate and natural translations, especially for complex or creative content. To improve the quality of MT, the LPMs may train a neural machine translation (NMT) engine that is customized for the company and products. The LPMs may also set up a machine translation post editing (MTPE) program that involves human linguists to review and edit the MT output. If the LPMs choose to set up a NMT or MTPE program, they should monitor the quality and productivity of MTPE and provide feedback to both the NMT engineers and the MTPE linguists.

5. Review samples of translation throughout the project

One of the reasons for late delivery is that the internal team may reject the translation at the end of the project due to quality issues or preferences. To avoid this situation, the LPMs should take some samples in each stage (foe example, divide 100 submissions into 5 batches and take 1-5 submissions as samples from each batch.) and send them to the internal team for review along the project. This way, the LPMs can get early feedback from the internal team and make adjustments accordingly. This can also help to build trust and rapport with the internal team and ensure their satisfaction with the final delivery.

Conclusion

Late deliveries are inevitable in localization projects, but they can be managed effectively with proper communication, negotiation, and problem-solving skills. The LPMs should always keep calm, understand the situation, and explore the possible solutions with the vendors and the clients. By doing so, they can minimize the impact of late deliveries and maintain a good reputation and relationship with their stakeholders.