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Welcome to the Rubric Newsletter.In This Issue: PM TIPS: Tips, tricks, and strategy from Rubric localization project managers. Welcome once again to the Rubric newsletter, where we bring Rubric's Better Localization Experience to your in-box. Past editions of the Rubric Newsletter can be found on our Web site. We encourage you to forward this newsletter to anyone interested in localization topics. If you are receiving this newsletter from a friend, feel free to subscribe to our newsletter; you will receive your copy as soon as it is published. |
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PM TIPSRubric localization project managers know the ropes, and are happy to share their top localization tips with you in every newsletter, and on the web at www.Rubric.com/pmtips.QA time essential: "When deciding your internal deadlines for a Localization project you should speak to a Localization Project Manager as soon as possible. Many people forget to take into account file preparation and QA time especially when working out how long they should give their vendor for translation. Unrealistic scheduling can seriously impact the ability of a vendor to be able to deliver to the expected deadlines of the client." — Jo Clayton, Lead Project Manager |
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RUBRIC NEWSSilicon Valley Localization Pro Meeting - April 19th: Rubric and invited Silicon Valley localization professionals met for the spring Birds of a Feather meeting. The event was well attended, and again gave localization pros the chance to meet and discuss how products and marketing localization projects can be improved. Localization gurus from Adobe, Verisign, VMWare, ViewCentral, EFI and other valley powerhouses attended. Photos from the event are online! In addition to good food, great conversation, andmeaningful exchange of ideas, Rubric's Senior Project Manager, Andrew Jones and Sarah Kitteridge from Rubric customer SumTotal Systems gave a presentation on keeping localization projects on schedule. Everyone was also given a sneak preview of a new tool Rubric is putting together for localization professionals worldwide. Rubric BOF meetings are a series of informal events where we brining together peers from global firms to network, discuss localization issues, and to learn from one another.If you would like to be considered for an invitation to this limited-seating event, please email us for an invitation and give us your name, company, and email address. |
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OUTSOURCING PITFALLSby Françoise Spurling, COO, Rubric |
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In this article I'll examine some of the problem areas associated with outsourcing and address how they can be overcome. I shall draw on our own experiences here at Rubric, where near-total outsourcing has been part of the fabric since our inception 13 years ago. Motivations The prime motivation for outsourcing is that you don't have to pay people when they are not working. This is the reason why most companies decide to outsource, often on the initiative of their senior management or finance departments. |
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In fact, in addition to only having to pay outsourced resources when they are working, you can also expect them to supply their own basic equipment and be able to be self-sufficient in terms of technical support. As a result, overhead and basic support costs are reduced as the resources supply and support their own equipment, office space, etc. Another reason to outsource is that outsourcing allows you to select the most appropriate resources. You benefit from the widest choice of experts, specialists and professionals, rather than being restricted to a limited pool of in-house people. In addition, if you happen to have made the wrong choice of resources for a certain task, you have the freedom to switch to more appropriate alternatives. Finally, outsourcing has the advantage of being infinitely scalable. In an outsourced environment, resources are virtually unlimited. Misfires So, if outsourcing has so many benefits, why doesn't everyone do it, and why do we hear so many horror stories about failed outsourced projects? For the people on the ground trying to accomplish a set of tasks, outsourcing is not very intuitive. If we need to get something done quickly, the first reaction for most of us is to hire somebody — to bring additional resources into the project by hiring and training additional staff. Why do we have this reaction? One reason is that we feel we have more control over somebody if we can see and talk to them directly, without the hindrance of a bad telephone line or the ambiguity of email. If resources are in a remote location and in a different time zone, how can we check that they are actually doing what they say they are doing and that they have understood our requirements and processes? In an outsourced environment, each task is going to take a little bit longer. Most people like immediate results, so our preference is often for using in-house resources, especially if the task appears to be small and quite urgent. Essentials Nevertheless, when the short-term outsourcing challenges are analysed more closely, each one of them is counterbalanced by a long-term benefit. Let's take recruitment as an example: recruiting outsourced resources is a lot more difficult than recruiting in-house employees. There are fewer established recruitment channels. Identifying candidates and evaluating them is therefore often done in an ad-hoc unstructured fashion, which can lead to erratic results. However for companies who succeed in recruiting the appropriate resources, the reward is that outsourced resources are lot more loyal; they are prepared to do the same job year after year, whereas most employees, looking for career advancement, will have left the job long ago. Once companies are successful in building a network of remote resources, they benefit from the resources' loyalty and they become infinitely scalable. One essential precondition of successful outsourcing and an additional challenge is that you need a very stable process. If you change the way you do things from one minute to the next, your remote resources will not be able to keep up with you. They will get totally confused and the result can be disastrous. The reverse side of the coin, of course, is that companies who do succeed in instilling the appropriate discipline in their organizations will find that their outsourced resources know and understand what they are supposed to do, and the whole organization benefits as their own employees often become more effective. Another area that requires more effort when you outsource is communications. You need excellent communications: setting clear expectations and clearly defining deliverables. This cannot be done on the hoof; it has to be formalized, with communications protocols carefully defined and adhered to. You can't just run upstairs to talk to Jim and clarify the vague request you put on his desk first thing in the morning. Your resources might be in a different time zone; so they might be left to their own devices all day before they can speak to you to get clarification on your instructions, leading to delays and wasted effort. There again, if we look at the long term, the effort companies put into communicating their objectives clearly and fully results in a greater level of quality, and it reduces back-and-forth delays, thereby minimizing effort and cost. Effective communications helps build stronger relationships with your external resources. Outsourcing requires that you plan your activities. If you want to outsource a task, you will need to spend time preparing an outsourcing kit, with appropriate instructions and reference materials. As you prepare this kit you will need to anticipate the needs of the person who is going to receive it. All this will take time; but, for those who make this effort, the reward is that resources are effective much more quickly, as they do not have to keep coming back for missing information. As they are better briefed, they produce work of better quality. An added bonus will be that companies themselves end up saving time, since the outsourcing kit and instructions can be reused and/or transferred to another agent almost effortlessly. We have seen that outsourcing requires a good strong process. Strong does not mean rigid, as the process also needs to be flexible. As your company evolves and grows, your processes need to evolve too. As we saw earlier, in an outsourced model, processes are central to the workings of your company. In a changing environment, they need to be flexible and stable at the same time. A well-defined method for handling process changes is therefore an essential element to successful outsourcing. The ultimate benefit is that as process changes are implemented with ease, companies are able to evolve and respond to industry changes. Finally, you will need to put in place some effective checks and controls to verify that the work you have outsourced is of the standard you require and that of your customers. In a completely outsourced model, this means using one contractor to check the work of another. Having competitors evaluate each other seems unintuitive at first, but companies who clearly define evaluation metrics find that professional contractors give a very fair and professional assessment of a competitor's work. After all, it could be the other way round next time, with the contractors swapping roles of checker and checkee, reviewer and reviewee. In fact, in the long term, this helps set corporate standards and improve quality. This last piece completes the picture of outsourcing success. With a stable yet flexible process, good communications, good preparation and effective checks and control, you can extend outsourcing indefinitely, expanding and shrinking your capacity according to demand without increasing your overhead. In conclusion, whilst many agree that outsourcing makes business sense, people on the front line find it difficult and sometimes unintuitive to implement; however, overcoming each of the challenges leads to some real long-term benefits, which makes for leaner and better companies. |
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SUCCESSFULLY PLANNING LOCALIZATION PROJECTSAndrew Jones, Senior Project Manager, Rubric |
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Write down the following four lines, take them to your computer monitor, and repeat them as your morning recitals:
Localization is Not Just Translation |
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Localization is a critical aspect of any globalization cycle. In order for a product to sell into international markets, there is going to be a translation element involved. However, since localization often is the last factor in a global release strategy, too often the details of what this translation process will involve — particularly in terms of timescales and metrics — are very hazy at the early stages of planning, leading to a fraught end to a global release.
Localization is often confused with translation. Even the most savvy clients use the word translate when they mean localize. Translation is just one of the elements that will get you a version of your product in another language. Alarm bells should ring in your head every time you hear the question, "Can you get this translated into XX?" The danger is that the word translation simplifies the task too much. I've recently worked on two website localizations for two different clients. Both clients came to me and said, "We are releasing our website on XX date in XX language; please can you translate and return the content by then?" The answer to such a question is always "yes." It is always possible to translate something quickly. However, if they'd asked, "Please can you localize this by XX date?" the answer would have been "no." Why? Because when I asked, "How many stages will the review cycle have?" they admitted they didn't have anyone to review it. When I asked, "Will you provide a server for testing," they admitted they hadn't thought that the translation would need to be tested. And so on and so forth. When (not "if," but when) this situation arises, you have two choices: release a poor-quality localized version on the agreed release date, or delay the release date, potentially causing internal headaches and external embarrassment. Far better to get a localization schedule worked out, factoring in all the elements, and THEN decide your release-to-market date. How Long Does Localization Take? If I had a quid for every time I am asked, "How long will it take to translate," or "What metrics can I use to plan my schedule," I would not be writing this article. I'd be pleasantly retired, sipping margaritas on a beach in Cancun. You may think, "Why do I need to know this? Why isn't the localization vendor planning my schedule for me?" Once you have selected a localization vendor, you will want them to put together a nuts-and-bolts schedule. Involve your localization vendor as early as possible in the cycle; getting their input and buy-in helps make this schedule realistic. But there are times when you may be asked for input into a global release schedule before you actually select your localization vendor. Or you may need to give a quick answer to an internal question — an answer that could be critical in a global release decision. So it's not a bad idea to have some loose concept for working out how long a localization schedule is going to take. Metrics Metric-based guidelines for how long tasks take are a useful starting point in planning. The problem with metrics is that there is a lot more to each individual task in the localization process than is apparent at first sight, and such metrics don't take into account necessary buffers. Chant once again — localization is not just translation. For example, you may hear that an individual can translate about 2500 words a day. So if you have a documentation file with 5000 words to translate, it can be delivered in 2 days, right?
So, rather than just adding a single task like "translation" to your estimate, break it down into the real elements involved. Break down tasks by asking yourself questions. Take software testing, for example. You know that the localized versions will need to be tested. Here are some questions to consider:
Each of these questions is probably going to lead to a task — and therefore time — on your schedule. Factoring in Risks When using global teams — which most localization project do — there are added, compounded complications and risks. It is possible that none of the risks will materialize, and often they don't, but it is worth creating schedule buffers in case they do. For example, have you taken account of public holidays? Some countries take holidays more seriously than others, but in many countries certain festivals and holidays are sacrosanct. Have you taken into account servers going down, email problems? Sure, it happens to everyone from time to time, but it's not just your own email service you have to worry about — it is the email service of every translator, project manager, and software tester in the localization process. When you get a few words translated into Japanese, those words will actually travel all round the world several times, through any number of email systems, before they return to you in Japanese. Only one computer somewhere on the planet (perhaps in an "electricity optional" locale) needs to fail in order to break the chain and your localization schedule. Three words can end up taking two days to be returned to you, even if the typing of the words only took 30 seconds. Most of the time these things don't happen. But when they do, it's better to be prepared. Sip some tea, and recite to yourself, add buffer to the schedule for unexpected glitches. Booking All Necessary Resources Early Internal project coordination It is always good to involve the localization vendor as early in the scheduling process as possible, rather than handing them a predetermined schedule with zero flexibility. The vendor will have realistic feedback on what can be achieved. They should help you with the breakdown of tasks and think of questions and issues relating to the schedule. A good vendor will also pre-book the best resources to produce the best-quality end product. You are likely to outsource much of the localization effort to a vendor. Don't fool yourself into thinking this means your staff will not be involved. At the very least you will need an internal contact who has time to liaise with external resources, who can answer or field their questions in a timely manner without delaying the project. Here are some questions to consider in this regard:
Internal reviewers You've been asked by your marketing team to produce a version in a new language because they think it will sell well in that marketplace. It is critical that you get your product reviewed by an in-country representative of your company — or a local partner — so that you can be sure that it meets their preferences and corresponds to their marketing effort. Do you have anyone? Are they booked? These people need to be booked early and for a specific time period, before the localization is complete. Even a day's delay in review can throw an otherwise coherent schedule completely off track. You need to consider how the new version is going to be assessed: does the marketing team have resources, in country, to review the localized version before it is released? Do they have capacity to liaise with linguists on preferred terminology? Do you need to book other types of external reviewers? Are you going to factor in the incorporation of end-user feedback once the product is released in the new market, and do you have the budget and a timescale for this? These are all questions to consider at the beginning of a global release cycle, as the answers to these questions will impact the date when you realistically release to market with the best experience for the end-user. Remember that the end-user buying in their native language will be doing so for a reason — they will be expecting the highest-quality, most user-friendly experience in their own language. Scheduling Will Be the End of Us All Scheduling a localization effort can be tough, but it is a lot easier than keeping an under-planned project on schedule. Here are some parting points to add to your computer monitor:
Andrew Jones is Senior Project Manager at Rubric, having worked for the company for the past 8 1/2 years. Educated at Oxford University, Andrew has helped a long list of clients, including Toshiba, Adobe, Computer Associates, Sonic Solutions, SumTotal Systems, Evergreen Solar, Bose and SuccessFactors. In addition to his work in localization, Andrew is Director of Music at "Shakespeare's Church", Stratford-upon-Avon, UK. |
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