Discourse on quality is well diffused in allsectors,including that of localisation,thanks in particular to the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) and itscomponents and more recently ISO certifications.
澳洲dissertation網(wǎng)This article contains some elementsof reflection gleaned from day to day localisationproject management.Most companies are preoccupied with customer satisfaction.Its central role is recognised, accepted and taken intoaccount as yet another competitive pressure.Furthermore, the quality approach has long presented astrong business argument in the conquest of new markets.
Associated with a controlled pricing policy, it makes it possibleto preserve all the competitiveness necessary for the economicsurvival of a company. Management technique thenconsists of correctly controlling quality over the long term.
Too many companies redouble quality-related efforts to obtainmarkets, and then let these efforts subside once the relationshipwith the customer is established.
EVOLUTION OF QUALITY
In order to sustain this approach and, at the same time,maintain good customer relations, it is necessary for both thecustomer and the service provider to jointly define the level oquality that is expected at the proposed price. Indeed, it is thecustomer who is most qualified to define the quality of a serviceas they are paying for it.However, it is necessary to guard against excess: the effort putinto achieving customer satisfaction is sometimes extreme, evencounterproductive, because some of the expectations ascribedto the customer have not been confirmed by any analysis. Inthese cases, there is a major risk of focusing on issues that thecustomer may be unaware of and are immaterial while leavingreal issues unresolved and actual expectations unsatisfied.
How many times have we worked long hours trackinginconsistencies in a product while letting some misprints andunfortunate phrases slip by, even though the customer seemed
more attached to the quality of the language. When this happened,
our approach remained unchanged, because the service
corresponded more to our own definition of quality thanto the real expectations of our customer. It was, therefore,necessary for us to highlight the improvement in linguistic
quality whilst pointing out to the customer the importance ofconsistency for the end-user. This shows us that you cannotfocus on one qualitative aspect without detrimentally affectingthe other. As a result of this, there has been movement awayfrom the old process of “unacceptable quality” to that of“super-satisfied customer.”
http://www.ttc-switch.com/Thesis_Writing/management/Does unacceptable quality result from the statistical methodsof the MIL STD (Military Standard) type? MIL STD “authorises”a level of non-quality (Acceptance Quality Level orAQL), that is to say defects being allowed to remain which#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
ruin a batch, despite being within acceptable levels. Thisapproach represents a compromise between the level of quality,he quantity delivered or the price negotiated, which wasacceptable in an economy of excess demand. Today, however,
supply exceeds demand and so no defect should ever beallowed to reach the customer.
Quality should be controlled to the point where only productswith no defects are released and even if the majority ofcompanies are not at that level of control, they should perceivethis as an attainable objective. But at which stage can
quality be best controlled?THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN LOCALISATION FOCUS VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1 MARCH 2004 77
ISQUALITY STILL
FASHIONABLE?
Philippe Pailhé
CONTROL: AT THE BEGINNING OF THE
PROCESS OR THROUGH FILTERING?
When defining a successful “quality control” method, it is
helpful to keep in mind the original, tried and trusted method,
where tight controls are placed on all translated documents
from the beginning to ensure that no sub-standard material
reaches the consumer, and also the filtering method that controls
the operations and processes and places the priority on
prevention of errors in these areas.
Current opinion advocates the passage from one to the other;
control from the outset replacing filtering efforts using a progressive
approach. The practical impact of this course of action
is known, but the levels of its development vary considerably.
For example, in order to apply the preventative approach
and control the processes, an organisation must possess
resources and competences that are generally lacking in
smaller, more modest companies.
This approach is inadequate. It should be regarded as a
temporary solution pending more efficient responses and
improvement of the source material. In fact, filtering allows
one to forget that the origin of quality is in the operations
themselves and not in control and sorting. The cost involved
in using filtering as a form of quality control can be prohibitive,
and in the face of competition, the long-term risk
involved in this method is an important factor. Costs incurred
because of poor quality can amount to up to 25% of production
costs.
Suppliers do not control markets, customers do, and no
customer is willing to pay for poor quality products. Customer
power combined with the pressure exerted on prices by competitors,
means that a lack of quality is a tangible element that
must be taken into account when calculating a company’s
profit margin. This can be done using the following equation.
PROFIT MARGIN = PRICE OF SALES –
LOSSES DUE TO LACK OF QUALITY
When a procedure is complex, and difficult to control, the
filtering process tends to reflect this and become entrenched
over the long term. Even on a temporary basis, one ends up#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
getting accustomed to this manner of organisation, and integrating
it into daily management practices.
Any interruption in this filtering process could affect quality,
and cause it to deteriorate rapidly. This means that at first
glance, filtering seems to be a legitimate form of quality control,
while in reality it addresses only the symptoms and not
the root causes.
When problems are brought to our attention we are embarrassed
and irritated, we say that we have tools to resolve the
problem, and pledge to change our approach so that causes
are addressed but urgency, the need to compete, means that
we interest ourselves in finding effective short-term solutions
that allow us to be competitive.
This urgency has existed for months, even years. The parable
of the woodcutter illustrates perfectly our obstinate behaviour
and failure to address this issue.
A person out for a stroll sees a woodcutter weary from
trying to cut wood with a blunt axe.
The stroller asks: “Why don’t you sharpen your axe?
Your work would be so much easier.”
“I do not have the time,” answers the woodcutter, sweat
dripping from his brow. “I must cut wood.”
Redoubling efforts to counteract effects rather than daring
to pause, analyse the situation and address the causes is a
common occurrence.
Recently, one of our customers asked us whether we could
carry out an update on one of their products. We had been
working on this product for years and managing this project
had always been difficult due to large unplanned volumes of
material, inflexible deadlines and poor organisation in general.
This update consisted of approximately 80,000 new words
to be translated within seven days. In deciding whether or not
to take the project, we were faced with two choices: 1) accept
the offer by distributing the volume of material among several
translators, being aware of effect that the time limit, the large
number of translators needed and guaranteed editing problems
would have on the already compromised quality of the
product, or 2) refuse, and thus allow our competitors to criticise
our work, and risk losing our customer.
Our solution was to use the update as an opportunity to
inform our customer of the problems arising from their imposition
of these conditions. In order to ensure that a situation
of this type did not arise again, we decided to rework (at our
own expense, as the customer only pays for an edited, final
version) all the documentation (more than 500,000 words)
for the product and explain, to the customer, the problems
that their conditions caused. However this extra work and
cost could have been avoided if we had tackled the causes of
the quality deficit, in partnership with our customer, from the#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
beginning. As it was, the situation had to change as the previous
method induced too much stress, caused supplementary
expense and allowed the delivery of sub standard versions of
the product. No one could benefit from this.
QUALITY CONTROL: A
QUESTION OF PRIORITIES
We understand, that actual demand is based on three
requirements: a high quality service, speed and the best possible
price. Current trends place these three requirements on
the same level:
Quality = Time = Minimum price
This equation is only relevant as long as the fragile balance
between these three elements is preserved. The three requirements
are strongly dependent on one another, and importance
granted to one is at the expense of the others. For example,
if one restricts oneself to the aim of providing a minimal
price whilst respecting impossible delivery times, quality will
inevitably suffer.
Quality = Time = Minimum price
(–) = (+) = (+)
Afterwards, if one wishes to improve on the quality of the
documents, they will need to be edited, incurring additional
costs and delay.
Quality = Time = Minimum price
(+) = (–) = (–)
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In the end, none of the criteria will have been fully satisfied.
Quality = Time = Minimum price
(–) = (–) = (–)
Quality must be considered a paramount element and not
relegated to third place. We work for the constant improvement
of quality while trying to learn from the lessons previous
problems have provided.
QUALITY: A SHARED EFFORT
Chief amongst these lessons are problems dealing with
spelling, grammar, formatting, syntax and style. It goes without
saying that these quality problems lie within the scope of responsibility
of the language service provider. However, there are
other recurring problems, running parallel
to these linguistic issues, that simple
precautions would eliminate.
LOCALISABILITY
Localisability refers to the process
of making an application localisable.
An application being
prepared for localisation
is split into two
conceptual blocks: a
block of data and a
block of code, the
data block contains
all the resources for
the user interface
while the code block
contains only the
code for all the local
environments and
language versions.
The code block will,
therefore, be identical
for all languages but will be adaptable according to the selected
languages. In practice this phase of preparation is not
always carried out correctly. Indeed, we regularly find ourselves
confronted with problems that are directly related to a
lack of file preparation.
Examples of problems arising due to lack of file preparation,#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
which can lead to quality issues, include the following:
FORMAT PROBLEMS
There is no universal address, date, hour and measurement
unit format and as a result all input fields should be able to
manage a variety of address formats. The fields “State” and
“Province” are used in many English applications and while
they refer to an existing concept for the Anglophone users,
they mean absolutely nothing to the majority of other users. In
the same way, postal codes differ from one country to another,
and while some are numerical, others are comprised of both
numbers and letters.
The same applies to date and time formats and also measuring
units.
For example, see Table 1.
STRING CONCATENATION PROBLEMS
String concatenation, while making it possible to reduce
the size of a string, can represent a real problem with regards
to localisation (See Table 2).
Taken separately, these strings are completely correct. In
English, the concatenation of Strings 2 & 1 and 3 & 1 gives a
satisfactory result. However, the result is less effective once
these strings are localised into French: for grammatical reasons,
the word tables being female, the concatenation of
Strings 3 & 1 is not correct, because String 1 should post
une aprés l’autre and not un aprés l’autre. The same
applies to many other languages. This problem can be easily
circumvented by avoiding the concatenation of strings in
resource files.
TRANSLATION PROBLEMS
Another problem that arises often is that identical
English words are not translated in the same
way. (See Table 3)
In the English version, String 1 (the title of a
dialogue box) is also used in an error message
(string 2). In French,
String 1 functions perfectly
as an autonomous string,
but not in String 2, the
error message, because
the definite article is necessary
in French
(L’assistant de création).
USE OF
VARIABLES
The use of variables can
also lead to errors and
affect the quality of a document
because while variables
can represent savings in English, they can prove to be a
great source of doubt and error for a translator. For example,
in the following sentence, the variable {0} can be substituted
alternatively with “classification category” and “access group”:
“Optional: Type a description of a {0}”
A correct translation of a {0} is impossible in French
because the two variables supplied are of different genders.
RESOURCE FILES
If the possibility of localisation at a future date is taken into
consideration during the development of an application, it is
possible to save time, and, by the same token, money because#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
the application will not have to be revised later in the development
process. While this may mean more initial work during the
technical drafting stage, future work will be greatly facilitated.
MESSAGES AND DIALOGUE BOXES
English strings are generally shorter than translated strings, and
as a result potential text expansion must be taken into account
when designing the user interface so that messages in other languages
can be displayed without having to revise the original text.
L O C A L I Z A T I O N R E A D E R 2004 -2005 79
String 1 String 2
English Create Wizard ‘String 1’ did not
complete successfully.
French Assistant de création “String 1” a échoué
String 1 String 2 String 3
English one after the other The directories will
be removed The tables will be removed
http://www.ttc-switch.com/Thesis_Writing/management/French un après l’autre Les répertoires seront
supprimés
Les tables seront
supprimées
Country Date format
United States 10/12/04
Spain 12/10/04
Japan 04/10/12
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
IMAGES
The use of images containing text is not recommended
because of the lengthy and difficult editing process and, furthermore,
the obstacle which can be represented by the size
of the text.
HELP FILE PREPARATION
The technical drafting of help files must be simple and
coherent to permit easy recycling of previously translated segments.
Particular attention must be paid to the drafting of the
software options in help files, as modification of an option can
involve a lot of research for the translator.
DEADLINES
Localisation and translation’s position in the editorial chain
implies a lot of pressure in terms of planning. Indeed, the
schedule established by the software publisher includes specific,
and separate, timeframes for the development and multilingual
localisation of a product. Any problems encountered
during the development phase can delay the provision of files
to the translator(s) and hence delay localisation. This means
that the deadlines set for localisation, which along with marketing
occurs at the end of the development process, are often
reduced to their minimum and this tends to make it difficult
to provide high quality work. Moreover, as time allotted fotranslation is often inflexible, we are often forced to sacrifice
valuable editing time, which, once again, can affect quality.Better planning that allows contingency time for possibleslippages would allow for better management of localisationprojects, on all levels.
IN THE END ...
All these problems can, on the whole, be avoided or circumventedby keeping localisation in mind during productdevelopment but if localisation is ignored costs can increaseappreciably and quality problems may be more difficult toidentify and correct.#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
We can presume that everyone is aware of the impossibleequation between quality, ever-faster delivery and constantprice reduction but due to the growing complexity of internationalcompetition on all levels, the current priority seems tobe focused on price and speed. Some clients may acknowledgethis issue, while others simply pass the “hot potato” onto the external vendor, letting them deal with the problem.While time and cost have a simple relationship, quality isantagonistic to both. Linguistic quality is necessarily basedon human process, which means it takestime and costs money. If you cut back onboth, quality will suffer. Philippe Pailhé is a Project Manager atWH&P. He holds a Masters in French translation
and a BA in French law. He can be
reached at [email protected]
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