Avoid the Pitfalls of Translation Project Management!

If you work in the translation department of a global enterprise or as a project manager for a language service provider, you probably know that managing translation and localization processes is anything but simple.
In order to operate internationally, companies all over the world need to communicate with their customers in the local language of the target market. If you work in the translation department of a global enterprise or as a project manager for a language service provider, you probably know that managing translation and localization processes is anything but simple. It requires sophisticated team workflows and technological infrastructure. And project managers are the backbone that holds everything together. memoQ provides a team-level solution that helps you to evaluate the challenges and problems that may arise during these localization workflows.

The sort of problems we mean includes not having people with the competencies needed for the project, unclear roles, unrealistic deadlines, unfeasible expectations. All kind of problems arise when you need to localize tons of content for internal and external communication. memoQ helps teams at translation companies and enterprises to tackle these issues. We will now look at how different type of errors jeopardize the quality of translation and hinder the success of localization projects like those you work with on a daily basis.

Documents that can not be handled

How many times have you received projects in file formats that you can not open or edit?  You end up asking for help to process these files, burning your time and increasing your costs. Most of the time, you have no alternative because you cannot get your client to resend the document in another format. Solution: right after the translation request was filed to you, clarify what kind of source file will be sent to the translators.

Translation and localization inconsistencies

You surely know this feeling. Your translation must be uniform even if the materials came from multiple sources - it’s a general requirement to comply with quality assurance regulations. This problem also needs to be tackled with an advanced solution. In order to get your suppliers to meet your expectations, your role as a project manager is pivotal in securing both clear instructions and a proper environment for collaborative work.

Lack of terminology and stylistic consistency

In order to avoid post-production work, which is often toilsome for your team and costly for your organization, as a project manager you need to provide your team with the language preferences framed in validated terminology databases. The terminology management module in memoQ can help you harmonize the translation work and deliver messages with the professional quality your company is looking for.

No uniform pricing

When you outsource projects to multiple translators working in different languages, your budget can drain quickly and it becomes increasingly difficult to supervise whether the rates you paid match the amount of work and quality delivered. Once you are equipped with the proper tools, you will never have to worry again about paying for the same translation twice, which is a problem that can occur often in collaborative environments with multiple translators.

We have gone through different professional and technical aspects, so let’s now return to the principles we laid out at the start of this article:

• To avoid overloading, evaluate the capacity of your partners.
• Help project coworkers to take delight in working together.
• Draw sharp boundaries of competencies.
• Assess the capabilities and skill set of the person you plan to delegate to; it is key to know their previous experience and how receptive they are.
• Remember that successful and fruitful communication between the project stakeholders and participants largely depends on you.

Conclusion

As a project manager, your goal will always be that translators, reviewers and proofreaders, and even your clients work together towards a common objective.

Besides designing workflows, assigning tasks and setting milestones and deadlines, another important part of your is analyzing and assessing potential risks. You need to keep constant measure of the different issues that could affect your project from start to finish, so that you can respond effectively and maintain a firm grasp on the project.

As project manager working in the translation industry, you can achieve outstanding results if you consider applying an advanced TMS solution that enables you to handle all the questions and issues within one system.

How can our team-level solution contribute to your success?

Our enterprise solution offers the value to your organization:

• Enables supervision, control and conduct workflows
• Handles multiple projects simultaneously
• Supports co-operative work processes that need multiple participants
• Provides constant real-time feedback to the project team members
• Equips both your freelance/subcontractor workers and your in-house people with translation memories
• Offers in-built terminology management
• Provides advanced language quality assurance module
• Allows you to easily handle projects with different file formats
• Offers out-of-the-box connectors and custom integration through API
• Enables you to monitor processes and costs
• Offers compatibility with DTP applications
• Last but not least, offers continuous product support and regular software and application updates

We hope this article serves as a guideline to help you discover the world of translation management systems, which could become your ally in mastering and excelling at project management in the translation industry.