Proper preparation and good management of the project is key to its success. Assembling an appropriate team, developing a translation budget, assessing the materials to be translated, and securing permission from copyright holders is important considerations before beginning the project.

A good analysis of the source material is aid in the selection process, and avoid translating unnecessary text. The cost of translation work is usually calculated based on the source word count. Translation rates can be highly variable, depending on factors such as language combination and complexity of the material. Review of the source text can eliminate issues that might be problematic during translation and help to determine what formats will be used to translate. Translation can occur in different formats, and the translated text can then be used to produce a variety of formats for delivery of the content to the end user. Materials with graphic or audio components require special attention, and more resources. Translation technologies to be aware of are machine translation, translation memory, and terminology management software. Proactively supporting the translation process is fundamental to avoid problems. One key aspect is communication: between the project manager and the translation team, but also among members of the team. It’s particularly important to have clear communication between the translator, the editor, and the subject matter expert. Also important is the ability for the translation team to communicate with the author of the material or someone able to answer any questions that will undoubtedly arise during the translation process. The use of a translation company should not impede this process but may require active participation on the project manager’s part. Other important aspects to support the translation process are proper documentation, including general translation guidelines for your organization, guidelines for each role in the translation process, a project plan, project- and role-specific instructions, and checklists for various tasks and processes. Finally, providing appropriate reference materials and supporting terminology management can help ensure consistency and high quality.

Providing the leading professional translation services needs a very rigorous human resources management supported by an always developing IT. There’s no management of human resources without staff recruitment under a meticulous recruiting process that involves an insider know-how and a serious use of all possible IT-supports.

Providing the leading professional translation services needs a very rigorous human resources management supported by an always developing IT. There’s no management of human resources without staff recruitment under a meticulous recruiting process that involves an insider know-how and a serious use of all possible IT-supports. After putting the right translation staff in place, managing translations is the main issue to be treated. It would be impossible to talk about translation services without mentioning Data and Project Management beside Human Resources. To make all this possible we keep quality control and project management including all details involved on top of our priority list. Understanding the Translation Process While a single person can translate a text for informational purposes, it generally takes multiple participants to produce a quality, final translation for publication or distribution. Translation is also a multi-step process, involving some iteration and redundancy. We can break this process down into a series of general steps: 1. Translation: The first phase of the translation process involves creating the initial target language text. It generally works best to have a single translator or a small, collaborative team of translators translate all the material. Most (although not all) professional translators work into their native language only. A translator who is also an expert in the field is ideal but may not always be easy to find. In these cases, review by an expert in the field is strongly recommended as part of the Editing/Revising step. The translation stage can require a lot of research. It is also the time when a bilingual glossary may be created, problems are identified, and content questions are addressed. 2. Editing/Revising: Editing involves checking the translation thoroughly against the original in order to eliminate any possible errors, ambiguities, and omissions. All changes in terminology need to be made consistently throughout the text, and in the project glossary. This step is often performed by a translator who works in the same language pair as the original translator. However, it may be beneficial to have the text checked by a native speaker of the source language, who may be able to spot errors due to the translator’s misinterpretation of the source text. If the original translator was not an expert in the field, use an expert target-language reviewer with good writing skills, even if he or she is not a professional translator. 3. Proofreading: This final quality assurance step serves to smooth out the writing, correct any minor punctuation and style details, and run a final spelling check. At this point, it should not be necessary to consult the source text except for clarification. The proofreader should have excellent native command of the target language and should be familiar with the style guidelines being used for the document. 4. Maintenance: While not an inherent part of the process of translation, this step is important to avoid the material becoming obsolete. Updates to the original material should trigger the update of any translated versions. Simple updates may be handled by one translator, but more complex updates with extensive changes or rewriting may call for editing/revising, and proofreading. It is worth noting that professional translators typically perform the first three steps themselves before presenting their work to the editor or reviewer, who will likely repeat steps 2 and 3.