Agile Localization – What Is It and How to Achieve It
CiklopeaTime is money and that is why the methods of translation and localization are continuously made more efficient. Agile localization workflows have been developed to follow the fast pace of software development and to provide the final deliveries in short time.
Agile workflow means it’s not necessary to wait for Peter from Scotland to finish his part of the work so we could start doing ours. In a process like this, everyone has their own tasks, even though they’re working on the same project at the same time. The changes are implemented in short intervals.
This localization method emphasizes continuous communication among the team members and generating new ideas that could improve the entire workflow. It is also very important to warn each other about the possible problems or pitfalls of the process.
Time management
Since this is an ongoing method that requires regular changes and updates, there is no much room for work-around solutions, which are not sustainable to begin with. They only serve as a quick runaway from the situation.
The best way to avoid problems is a better time management. Be sure to always measure how much time you spend on certain phases of the project and try to adjust the workflow accordingly.
Toss the unnecessary
During the localization process, we often don’t think about the necessity of every piece of content so we localize everything, even though a lot of it could be unimportant. That’s why we need to define what we don’t need and then toss it away so we don’t lose time and resources on something no one will ever use.
In order to do that, we need to analyze the market as well as the needs and desires of our customers – what do they use, how they use it and in what languages. It’s crucial to get rid of the localization waste.
Recycle
Recycling is extremely important in the localization world as much as it is in nature and environment. Translation assets are the storage lockers of the language industry where we can find translation memories and termbases. They can be created for specific projects and language pairs. Reusing the already translated material reduces the time needed for translation of the new material, which is, for sure, the most important feature of agile localization.
Automatize
Even though the copy-paste method sometimes may seem like the most efficient one, in most situation, it is not the case. There are number of ways to automatize the localization process, and one of the best examples is website localization. That process can be sped up and automatized using some of the many CMS plug-ins for which can be integrated with CAT tools.
Ciklopea has localized its website to three languages using WMPL plug-in for WordPress, which was then connected to Memsource. The biggest benefit here is that it is possible to set up only one project, define as many target languages as you want and send it for translation in just a few clicks.
This is just one of the many examples of process automation, even though there are many more. We just need to think outside of the box.
Conclusion
Agile localization may sound like a mission impossible, but it is actually all about good communication and work organization. It’s important to set up and define clear goals and tasks for each team member who will then send periodical reports to others about the phase they’re currently working on.
After each phase, the product has to be tested and these tests should be carried out regularly so we could be sure that we have the best possible solution in every moment.