7.2 Research Methodology
7.2.1 Analysis of Relevant Methodologies
In the first step we analyze different relevant methodologies related to the ontology localization activity. In particular, we focus on the Software Lo- calization approaches, which provide an overview of different tasks that deal with issues relevant to this activity, such as the analysis of source material, translation process, or product quality assurance.
In what follows, we will describe different software localization method- ologies or in some cases best practices extracted from academia and indus- try. These methodologies view the localization as a mechanism to satisfy the needs and requirements of international markets or cultural nuances and they also consider the localization as a continuous process. The list of se- lected methodologies and models are neither meant to be exhaustive nor complete but rather only informative.
Software Localization Methodologies
Unlike software development projects, in which well-established and precise practices and methodologies exist the localization projects do not explain the localization process with the same style and granularity. Possibly, one of the reasons of the lack of a coherent methodology is that the localization does not consist of a discrete process or a defined set of tasks, but rather represents a focal point in the corporate matrix at which various business units, objectives, and processes intersect [Dunne, 2006].
However, in literature there are various works that follow different method- ological steps, which are not applicable to all projects, but are to be seen as general goals in the localization chain. For example, Essenlink [Esselink, 2000] is one of the first in identifying and describing some typical phases for a localization project sequence:
• Analysis of source material. Its goal is to analyze all aspects of the
material to be localized to create the foundation for an effective local- ization. The essential steps of this phase are:
– To identify the localization problem areas. – To select the localization tools.
– To analyze all aspects of the new localization project.
• Scheduling and budgeting. The goal of the schedule and budget task
is to ensure a timely shipping of localized software. Some steps are recommendable:
– To identify all tasks and activities.
– To define the dependencies between activities – To establish the sequences of activities.
• Identification and setup of both source and target language terminol- ogy. Its goal is to define the basic terminology list, also called project
glossary, which would typically contain terms that are commonly used in the product user interface or support documentation. Some tasks of this phase are:
– To select methods for collecting terminology information. – To extract the terminology information.
– To identify the terms that should not be localized such as proper
names.
• Preparation of source material. Once the material has been analyzed
a translation kit is is created for the translators. The preparation of the source material includes:
– To investigate leveraging possibilities for the software, i.e., check-
ing whether existing translations can be automatically re-used.
• Translation of software. The goal of this task is to translate the soft-
ware resources such as dialog boxes, menus and strings and to validate the translations in context (in the running applications).
• Translation of online help and documentation. As soon as a software
glossary or a preliminary build of the localized software is available, translation of online help and documentation can start.
• Engineering and testing of software and online help. The engineering
task involves resizing the user interface, assigning unique hot keys, and compiling the localized resource files into a running application. The main step of this phase is:
– To test the functionality of localized versions.
• Processing updates. The goals of this task are to process updates
using files compares, copying and pasting, or translation memory tools and to prevent unnecessary software engineering, testing or desktop publishing work.
• Product quality assurance and delivery. Its goal is to check the quality
of all localized material. The pre-delivery QA check includes:
– To review the quality translations. – To finalize bug or problem reports.
– To ensure that the instructions given in the initial hand-off or
statement of work from the publisher were covered.
• Project closure. The goal of the project closure task is to organize
a post-mortem or project audit with the localization vendor after a project has been completed. Issues involved in this step include:
– To process the evaluation of the completed project
– To evaluate the technical and linguistic quality of deliverables. – To identify the areas for improvement.
– To suggest process modifications for future projects.
In a publication on MultiLingual Computing1, Muller [M¨uuller, 2009] identifies nine phases for software localization:
1Multilingual Computing is one of leading industry magazine for Web
site globalization, international software development and language technology (http://www.multilingual.com)
• Project setup phase. The phase is devoted to establish the project plan
with milestones, time buffers and constraints. The essential tasks of this phase are:
– To analyze the characteristics of the material to be translated. – To identify the time for translation preparation and revision. – To identify the constraints such as project end, money and re-
sources of each task.
• Translator training phase. The goal of this phase is to train the trans-
lators in the software to be localized. The idea of this phase is to avoid that the first contact of the translator with the software is only a list of words without context. The tasks of which this phase comprises are:
– To organize a training course of the software to be localized. – To provide support tools for solving the translator’s problems. – To introduce the localization kit so that the translators become
familiar with the style guide and the workflow they should follow.
• Terminology definition phase. The goal of this phase is to define the
basic terminology to be used for translation. The main step of this phase is:
– To extract the terminology from the elements to be translated.
• User interface translation. The main purpose of this phase is to start
the localization of the software. The main tasks that follow this phase are:
– To select the tools for supporting the translation.
– To enable the interpretation of context-less strings, providing ad-
ditional information.
• Test of user interface translation. The goal of this phase is to con-
trol the quality of the localized versions of the software. The tasks recommended are:
– To design a list of tests that cover a wide range of topics (e.g.,
check messages for consistent wording, check that the text is not truncated due to its length, etc.)
• Documentation translation phase. Its objective is to translate the
documentation of the software product.
• Review of documentation translation. In this phase, the translated
documentation is checked for possible errors. The steps recommended are:
– To design and implement both usability and quality documenta-
tion tests.
– To ensure the consistency between the user interface and the doc-
umentation.
• Finalize documentation translation The main goal of this phase is to
update the localized documentation.
• Lessons learned. Its objective is to find problems during the localiza-
tion process between all internal and external team members, the root causes of the problems and the enablers that particularly contribute to the difficulties. This phase involves the following tasks:
– To identify problems in the performance level.
– To review the causes of the problems based on the lessons learned
log maintained during the project.
In her doctoral work about Internet Software Localization, Jevsikova- [Jevsikova, 2009] identifies five phases that should be carried out to localize a software product. For each phase she describes the goals and the processes used:
• The Preparational phase of the localization process aims to evaluate
the number of potential users of the localized product, the software and the potential of localization. The preparational phase also helps to choose suitable software to localize.
• Software adaptation is the second phase of the localization process,
which can be run in parallel with the translation and adaptation of
the dialogs phase (explained latter on). The difficulty of this phase
depends on the level of internationalization of the software. Basically, this phase involves the adaptation of all cultural elements of the soft- ware to the target locale. Locale definitions are used to prepare the software for such adaptation.
• The Translation and adaptation of dialogs involve as first task the
preparation of contextual information for translating the user inter- face strings. Then, the experimentation of the software is performed
by running the program and looking for interface strings. After the correction of the translation, the testing and correction cycle is re- peated, because the correction of one string can cause errors in another interface part.
• Translation and adaptation of help documents The main goal of this
phase is to ensure the consistency between the user interface and the help information.
• Overall localization testing includes internal and external testing when
all the previous stages of localization are completed. This stage in- cludes testing of consistency of user interface elements, consistency in token functionality, aesthetics, inter-product communication, script- ing considerations, error messages, cross-platform, hardware platform and other [O‘Sullivan, 2001].
The SDL Language Technologies2, incorporate nine basic steps in their software localization tool (SDL Passolo3). The standard localization process includes the following steps:
• Analysis of the material received and evaluation of the tools and re-
sources required for localization.
• Cultural, technical and linguistic assessment.
• Creation and maintenance of terminology glossaries. • Translation to the target language.
• Adaptation of the user interface, including resizing of forms and di-
alogs, as required.
• Localization of graphics, scripts or other media containing visible text,
symbols, etc.
• Compilation and build of the localized files for testing. • Linguistic and functional quality assurance.
• Project delivery.
As can be observed, the previous works contain some similar tasks. In the next step of the development of the methodology we identify the set of common task which these works treat.
2SDL Language Technologies is a division of SDL International, the world leader in
Global Information Management (GIM).