How to create and implement a measurement strategy for your translation projects

如何为您的翻译项目创建和实施评估策略

2021-01-26 16:50 GALA

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There is no exact definition of what a high-quality translation is. In most cases, a translation is considered good or great based on whether it meets all the requirements and expectations of a client. As this definition is subjective, in order to have the most satisfying final translation products, your company need to set a measurement strategy (KPIs) with clear indications. The indications for a localization project might differ for each company. However, based on our experience in the localization industry, we recommend including some of the following key metrics in the measurement strategy for your translation projects. 1. Delivery time Does the translation partner deliver the translations in-time, ahead of the deadline or late? To define what “late delivery” is, you should consider two factors: Jobs that are not delivered within the agreed turn-around-time or deadline without prior notice. The threshold for notice is no later than the point when 50% of the TAT (business hours/days) has passed. 2. Costs Are the costs within your budget and as you expected? Are there any additional costs during the localization process? 3. Project quality Language Quality Assessment (LQA) To evaluate the quality of a project, your company should establish an LQA form to structure the feedback given by reviewers on the translation quality. Below is a common LQA form from the Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) for your reference. The form covers a wide range of error categories such as spelling, grammar, layout, etc. Each category will be evaluated based on the error severity which is categorized by Minor, Major, and Critical, with weighting figures. For example, if the translation contains two minor errors in Mistranslation, it will generate a score of 2. If you record two major errors, it will be 10 points. Due to its linguistic nature, the LQA process should be performed by professional linguists. Your company can contact a freelance reviewer to support you on this step. Pass rate You have to decide the total score when a translation is considered as pass or fail. Scores from all segments from the QA metric above are added together to give a total score for the translation. If it is above this predefined threshold, the translation is considered as a “pass”. The LQA step is usually performed on about 5-10% of the volume of a translation. In case there are numerous translations, evaluating all of them might not be possible for every SMEs, in terms of budget. If this is the case, you can define a specific percentage of translations that can be evaluated based on your financial resources other than the mentioned percentage above. It is also worth noting that an overall KPI for these translations should be set. How many passed translations it needs to meet the overall KPI? For example, you evaluate 10 translations from a translator and set the KPI that 9/10 of the translations have to pass. If the translator only has 8 passed translation, then overall, he or she doesn’t meet the overall KPI. The LQAs process should be conducted carefully by senior linguists to accurately evaluate the final translations as well as the quality of your current translation resources. After this step, you will receive insightful information on the commonly-made mistakes, what needs to improve and especially whether to keep or change the resources to guarantee better-quality translation projects in the future.
对于什么是高质量的翻译这一问题,我们并没有给出确切的定义。在大多数情况下,我们认为,一个好的的翻译要基于它是否满足了客户的所有要求和期望。由于这个定义是主观的,所以,您的公司需要设置一个具有明确指标的评估策略(KPI),以使最终翻译产品满足客户要求。 每个公司本地化翻译项目的指标可能有所区别。然而,根据我们在本地化翻译行业的经验,我们建议在您的翻译项目的评估策略中包括以下一些关键要素。 1.交货时间 您的翻译伙伴是否及时,提前或延迟交付译文?要定义“延迟交付”的评估标准,您应该考虑两个因素: 翻译伙伴未在约定的交付时间或截止日期内交付稿件,且未事先通知。 最迟通知时间不得迟于TAT(项目时间/天数)过半的时间点。 2.费用 费用是否在你的预算之内,是否和预期相符?在本地化翻译过程中有没有额外的成本? 3.项目质量 语言质量评估(LQA) 要评估一个项目的质量,你的公司应该建立一个语言质量评估表单来列出审稿人对翻译质量给出的反馈。 下面是本地化工业标准协会(LISA)给出的常见语言质量评估(LQA)表格,以供大家参考。该表单涵盖了广泛的错误类别,如拼写,语法,布局等错误。每个类别将根据错误严重性进行评估,错误严重性按次要,主要和关键进行加权分类。例如,如果译文中有两个误译的小错误,记2分。如果译文中记录两次重大错误,则记10分。 由于语言的特性,语言质量评估(LQA)过程应该由专业的语言学家来完成。你的公司可以联系一个自由职业审稿人来帮助你完成这一步。 通过率 你必须依据总分来判定一篇译稿是否合格。翻译的总分由上述语言质量评估的所有分数相加。如果它高于合格线,则翻译被认定为“通过”。 语言质量评估这一步通常评估翻译总量的5-10%。如果有翻译量很大,就预算而言,不可能评估每一个中小企业所有的翻译.如果是这种情况,您可以选择特定的翻译评估量,可以根据您的财政资源状况进行评估,而不是上述评估量。 还值得注意的是,应该为这些翻译设置一个总体评估策略(KPI)。它需要多少篇翻译稿来满足整体的评估策略(KPI)?例如,您评估10篇机器翻译稿,并设置9/10个翻译必须通过的KPI。如果翻译人员只有8次通过翻译,那么总体来说,他/她没有达到总体KPI。 语言质量评估的过程应由资深语言学家谨慎地完成,以准确地评估最终译文以及当前翻译的质量。在这一步之后,您将收到关于译文的常见错误类型以及需要改进的地方,特别是保留或更改源文以保证将来翻译项目有更高的质量。

以上中文文本为机器翻译,存在不同程度偏差和错误,请理解并参考英文原文阅读。

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