Executive Roundtable:
Assessing Software Globalization Development

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Roundtable agenda >

Moderated by Dale Schultz – Globalization Test Architect, IBM

Session Leaders

• Fumiko Tanaka – Globalization Manager, Fuji Xerox
• Jean-Francois Vanreusel – Sr. Engineering Manager, Adobe Systems
• Mika Pehkonen – Documentation and Localization Manager, F-Secure

What does it mean when a software package “supports” a language? At present no one really knows. It could mean that the software has a localized user interface, that it supports entering text in the language, that it supports address formats for the countries where the language is supported, that is supports language-specific features, or that the product has been thoroughly customized for a particular market.

Participants in this exclusive LISA Roundtable will explore

• functions needed to effectively support a given language or country
• methods for measuring globalization-related capabilities in products
• ways of assessing actual support needs for specific products

The program will evaluate different methods of accomplishing these goals and evaluating success of efforts. Participants will hear from leading presenters on the cutting edge of global software development about how they have accomplished these goals.

Specific topics of discussion

• Customer evaluations: Given two potential solutions, which one is better in terms of globalization?
• Design time “what if” scenarios, e.g., comparing “plain” Java with ICU. Impact of Unicode 5.1
• Measurement of globalization team effectiveness, education campaigns, technology, standards, and tools.

Potential hurdles

• Large software products use multiple technologies with varying capabilities: Products may have better scores in some areas than others.
• Different applications require different levels of globalization support. For example, an e-mail system client has to support many features that an e-mail alert module in a server application will not need; operating systems need to provide specific keyboard support while end-user applications can generally rely on the operating system for this support.
• Rapid change in terms of technology (e.g., protocols, platforms), political and legal issues (e.g., time zone changes, support for currencies and writing systems), and market requirements.

Possible techniques

• Globalization readiness matrix for various software libraries and technologies.
• Counting customer-reported defects
• Usability testing
• Globalization-specific testing

Potential areas of assessment

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