For somebody (people or teams) who have experience in releasing software products in multiple languages, they would typically have gone through a lot of learning in terms of how the nuances of different languages can cause changes in the base language product (in our case, and in most cases, the base language product is in English, and the product can be released in many other languages, for larger software products such as Operating Systems or MS Office or Photoshop, these can be many many languages).
However for a team that has so far been releasing software products in one base language and have now moved to try and release their product in other languages, it can be a fairly complex project. In simplistic terms, it is to make sure that all the strings used in the product (whether these be text on screens or on dialogs or error messages, etc) are all capable of being harvested, sent for translation and then reincorporated back into the product depending on the language in which the product is being released.
Based on this simple concept, things get more complicated as you proceed towards actually doing the project. There are additional schedule requirements, there is a lot more work for the developers since testing a product for localization reveals many changes that are required, there is the need to get external people who can do the testing of the product in the different languages (the language needs to be checked, as well as the functionality of the various parts of the product under different languages), and many other changes need to be planned (this post is not meant to be a full description of the process of getting a product localized for the first time - that is a massive endeavor that requires a lot of explanation). As an example, a simple text on an error message may turn out to be much longer in a language such as Russian or German, or reading from right to left in Arabic or Hebrew, and the error message may not display properly in such cases. Either the message needs to be re-written or the error message box needs to be re-sized, which also has implications for the help manuals that may need to be modified.
Ideally, a team planning to get their product localized for the first time needs to avail of the learning that other teams and products have gained over their cycles, and so either need to hire some people with the required experience for both development and testing, or atleast get a thorough discussion with teams that have done this. Getting a product localized for the first time is not that big a effort and can be done right, but it is also not something that you attempt without ensuring that you have done adequate preparation in terms of schedule and resources. Once you have done that level of planning, then you will still face challenges, but those should be fixable.
However for a team that has so far been releasing software products in one base language and have now moved to try and release their product in other languages, it can be a fairly complex project. In simplistic terms, it is to make sure that all the strings used in the product (whether these be text on screens or on dialogs or error messages, etc) are all capable of being harvested, sent for translation and then reincorporated back into the product depending on the language in which the product is being released.
Based on this simple concept, things get more complicated as you proceed towards actually doing the project. There are additional schedule requirements, there is a lot more work for the developers since testing a product for localization reveals many changes that are required, there is the need to get external people who can do the testing of the product in the different languages (the language needs to be checked, as well as the functionality of the various parts of the product under different languages), and many other changes need to be planned (this post is not meant to be a full description of the process of getting a product localized for the first time - that is a massive endeavor that requires a lot of explanation). As an example, a simple text on an error message may turn out to be much longer in a language such as Russian or German, or reading from right to left in Arabic or Hebrew, and the error message may not display properly in such cases. Either the message needs to be re-written or the error message box needs to be re-sized, which also has implications for the help manuals that may need to be modified.
Ideally, a team planning to get their product localized for the first time needs to avail of the learning that other teams and products have gained over their cycles, and so either need to hire some people with the required experience for both development and testing, or atleast get a thorough discussion with teams that have done this. Getting a product localized for the first time is not that big a effort and can be done right, but it is also not something that you attempt without ensuring that you have done adequate preparation in terms of schedule and resources. Once you have done that level of planning, then you will still face challenges, but those should be fixable.
No comments:
Post a Comment