The concept and processes of Quality Assurance in translation and localization have improved dramatically over the last decades. They have been further developed, refined and optimized by industry stakeholders on client and vendor side, and the process of refinement is still ongoing: translation software programs have emerged and are still emerging, QA standards are being implemented, numerous commercial QA tools are being marketed and sold to those who understand that high quality is key. Still, in addition to all the tools and standards, there is one historical component in the process that is still there and offers the essential added value to any QA process, the human reviewer.
We all know that the essence of good translated output is a well-written source. However, for the sake of argument, let’s assume we have a translation that was based on a perfect source. We now move to the next step in the process, the review. Leaving aside the question “why we need a review in the first place, when we have a “perfect” translation, since it was based on a perfect source?” we go straight to the review step itself.
There are many criteria that co-define the type or depth of a review. As a rule of thumb, one could say that the higher the risk impact of a wrong translation, the more in-depth review is required. A malfunctioning vacuum-cleaner will not have the same impact as a wrong interpretation due to a bad translation of a patient’s medical-technical manual. In the latter, a mistake in instructions could potentially have fatal consequences. Therefore, the in-country review is a must.
As per the example above, the in-country subject matter expert review is mandatory for highly regulated content “to the extent possible”. This step is usually conducted after the linguistic review by a subject matter expert. The emphasis lies on the technical aspects, functioning, use and terminology of the product rather than the linguistic elements.
Unfortunately, the in-country review step is not without challenges. Here are some of the most common ones:
However, there are ways to ease the pain to some extent:
To summarize, in-country review does not come without challenges but it is a job that needs to be done. Even today, that we have sophisticated QA tools for project review, the in-country review by a highly qualified human subject matter expert offers a substantial contribution to the process. It will not only reflect on the overall quality of content but also on the company’s branding and reputation. Translated product documentation remains a very powerful marketing tool. It allows for deeper local market penetration thus bringing the product within reach of local end-users.
If you want to learn more about the Quality Assurance methods that Commit Global uses, contact our friendly team.
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