Integrating localization and technical communication: 10 critical tasks

1. Communication

Communication is often the biggest issue mentioned at project reviews. You can never have enough timely and relevant communication. With multicultural and virtual teams, it is especially critical to communicate early, often, and in multiple ways. For example, if you have a conference call, follow up with an email verifying agreed action and due dates, and post the information in a team portal. Don't assume that everyone has the same ideas about time, project requirements or responsibilities. Instead, be explicit about expectations at the beginning of the project and, wherever possible, identify and address any potential areas of conflicting assumptions. Provide training to make sure that the localization and content teams understand the similarities and differences between the two roles. Name primary and secondary points of contact to act as liaisons with the translation team. If something comes up in a project meeting that affects the documentation, it also affects translation. Work with the localization vendor to find out what they need from you in order to be successful.

2. Needs analysis

Companies tend to get excited about tools and methodologies, which often results in choosing a tool or process before really clarifying the problem and need. However, no tool is a panacea. If you are implementing DITA, XML, content management (CMS), or other systems that require considerable resources to implement, you must evaluate your existing processes and content before jumping to something new. The best CMS in the world and the most effective XML/DITA implementation won’t help you if you lack effective QA, editing, and change management. Localization costs could go up, not down, if you don’t include the localization team in the analysis, integrate it into the new processes, and provide clear instructions. Also, when calculating your return on investment (ROI), you need a baseline so that you can determine how much the new system improves efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

3. Tool selection

A tool that worked for one or two languages might not work for managing larger language sets. Some tools are better for certain types of content than others. Some tools simplify the localization process, while others complicate it. Desktop publishing and formatting costs are often a huge percentage of the overall localization costs, so work with your localization vendor to identify tools that will help you minimize these costs, while managing your source content effectively.

4. Content analysis

Some content is independent of a project, and can be translated separately from the project-specific content – a content analysis can identify this information. When content is translated, the localization team loads it into the translation memory and checks it against existing content. Translators must evaluate "fuzzy matches" (where the new content is almost, but not exactly, the same as the existing content) for context. When you analyze the content for areas of overlap, duplication, preferential edits, information types, consistency, and so on, you can reduce the fuzzy matches, improve consistency and quality, and lower localization costs.

The localization vendor can assist you by providing a source-to-source comparison of the new and existing content. If the analysis shows a lot of 90-95% matches, look at your editorial processes to ensure that preferential changes are not being made to previously translated content. In addition, examine your CMS to ensure that existing content is easy to retrieve and reuse.

Conduct periodic audits of your content. These audits help you identify appropriate metrics, what you are doing well and where there is room for improvement. When done consistently, the audits help you to prioritize your efforts, and give you the information you need to make sound business decisions.

Creating content ‘chunks’/components/modules allows you to send only the untranslated content to the vendor, which saves 10% or more of your localization costs because vendors charge you even for 100% matches. This charge is because the human translator has to do context verification. Sending only new or modified content eliminates this. Reuse facilitates consistency. Instead of rewriting a note, caution, or warning every time it’s needed, you write it once and reuse it many times. Do the same thing with graphics, tables, regulatory information, and other content that’s used in multiple places. However, consistency doesn’t equal quality. You also need to spend time internationalizing the content to ensure that it is clear, concise, and accurate.

5. Internationalization

Ideally, internationalization is not a separate process, but built into the very design of the products, strategic planning and cultural milieu. It's much easier to design something that considers global needs, than it is to retrofit it later. It takes time to build the initial understanding and shift the corporate culture. And, this is an ongoing process as the teams reach new levels of knowledge and understanding. Once that integration occurs, however, companies begin to reap the rewards in terms of faster times to market, fewer cultural issues, improved customer service, and potentially, larger market share.

6. Editing

Localization is very much a "garbage in, garbage out" process. The higher the quality of the source content, the better the translation will be. Inaccurate, poorly written, source content results in inaccurate, poorly done translations. For example, if you have an error in the source that costs €10 to fix, multiply that amount by the number of languages and the number of errors and you can see how quickly the costs escalate (€10 x 20 languages x 100 errors = €20000). Without an effective editing process, both content management and localization are doomed to failure. Poorly edited CMS output is inconsistent in tone and style, which confuses the user and makes translation difficult. 


In addition, localized content also needs an effective in-country review process, where the reviewers are knowledgeable about the products, fluent in both the source and target languages, and perform the review as part of their job description.
Part of having an effective editing process is having and using a style guide and templates to ensure consistency. The localization team can help you identify potential localization issues with the style guide and templates, thus optimizing them for localization. Get this input early in the project cycle so that you have time to implement the recommendations. 


Desktop publishing and engineering are often the largest costs in a translation project. By ensuring that the templates work with all languages, you can significantly reduce problems and overtime costs at the end of a project. Better yet, automating the publishing by using a content management system and structured authoring saves costs and enables you to focus your resources more effectively on the quality of the content itself. (Cautionary note here: It takes significant effort to move to content management and structured authoring and doing so is not a panacea - so be sure to perform a cost/benefit analysis before transitioning.)

7. Terminology

Consistent terminology makes your content significantly easier to translate. Like the style guide and the templates, you can manage terminology outside of a specific project. Terminology development also provides an excellent opportunity to engage your in-country reviewers and localization vendor early in the cycle. Create a sub-team that includes a representative from the documentation, localization, and development teams, as well as the in-country reviewers. When done as an ongoing activity, especially when new products are developed, this ensures more consistency throughout the product, documentation, marketing materials, and language products. The approved terms can be loaded into the translation memories early in the project and can be used in software projects for testing the user interface.

8. Metadata and attribute management

If you are using XML or other structured authoring tools, you need to clearly identify which metadata get translated and which don't. It's a horrible feeling to get all the way to the final QA, only to realize that some text strings have not been translated when they should have been and other metadata aren't functioning properly because they were translated when they shouldn't have been.

9. Change management

Like the editing process, effective change management is critical to the success of any large content management project, especially when localization is involved. Change management allows you to be more proactive about how and when you submit changes to localization. If a project is already in post-editing or desktop publishing when you make the change, it will cost a lot more than if the content is just being started. If in-country reviewers demand changes and don't follow the process, they can completely derail the project because the translators depend on them for QA approval. Ensuring that the reviewers are trained in the products, are native speakers of the target language, and that the review is part of their job description will help facilitate a smoother process.

10. Workflow

Integrating localization into the content development process earlier in the project cycle requires some modifications to the workflow. It's a good idea to start with a pilot project staffed by innovative, motivated, and open-minded team members who understand the business reasons for integrating the localization and documentation processes, as well as having the technical skills to succeed. Pilot projects allow you to work out any kinks and to set up metrics before the new processes are introduced. Involve the localization vendor and set up metrics to evaluate how well each part of the process is working. 


Consider modularizing your content so that you can submit small portions to localization as they are approved, rather than waiting until the end of the project. Also, if you are using a CMS, you can send only the altered content to the translation team, automate the publishing, and modify the translation QA process to ensure that the output is correct. DTP/output formatting is the largest cost when localizing content. The business case for each company will be different, but you could potentially save over 20% of your localization costs by implementing an effective workflow.

Conclusion

Companies that successfully integrate localization into the documentation and product development process reap the financial benefits of simultaneous global releases, improved customer service, as well as high quality products that meet the needs of all their customers - regardless of locale. Such integration requires the localization vendor to view the client relationship from a long-term perspective.

While integration results in short-term loss of revenue on a project, the overall budget for localization doesn't typically go down. Instead, those short-term savings go toward adding languages, improving the product's internationalization, localizing marketing, or other initiatives that improve the company's global presence, all of which represent revenue opportunities for the savvy localization vendor.