To overcome this issue we developed a generic localisation process flow diagram in order to set some boundary for the course content. Depending on the structure of your organisation the localisation management tasks are usually distributed amongst several people of varying titles. Whilst almost every organisation employed a "project manager" the role of this person varied with almost all companies. In order to cover all aspects of a localisation project the notion of distributed project management was introduced to cater for the situation where the project management tasks are distributed throughout the organisation.

For example in a large multi-lingual project the project management of a language group may be implemented by a language co-ordinator reporting to a head of language whilst the DTP and Engineering project management elements may also be managed by DTP and Engineering co-ordinators.

Course Outline

Following an introduction to the course by the course leader Fergus O'Connell, Gunnie Jacobsson gave an overview of the localisation process and initiated work on the design of the generic localisation process flow diagram.

Structure Project Management

The course is based around Fergus O'Connell's successful book [1] and uses a 10 point system called "Structured Project Management".

Step	Weight
1 Visualise the goal	20
2 Make a list of job	20
3 There must be one leader	10
4 Assign people to jobs	10
5 Manage expectations	10
	----
	70
6 Use an appropriate leadership style	10
7 Know what's going on	10
8 Tell people what's going on	10
9 Repeat steps 1- 9	0
10 The prize	0
	----
	30
Total	100

Project Success Indicator

Each step has been allocated a weighting used to calculate a Project Success Indicator (PSI). Fergus has established the following rule of thumb for a project:

• 40 out of 70 is the threshold for steps 1-6
• 60 out of 100 is the threshold for all 10 steps
• Low scores will always point you at the most important areas
• you can do anything you like to a poorly planned project and it won't make the slightest bit of difference.

From the above we can see that there is a significant emphasis placed on the planning aspects of managing a project, something with which I think we can all relate.

First Law Of Project Management

Another key concept introduced by Fergus was what he called The First Law of Project Management. This law takes the following form:

On any product or system development project there is a function that relates four variables:

• Functionality
• Delivery Date/Schedule
• Effort/Cost
• Quality

The law says that there is a function of these four variables that is a constant, i.e.

function = constant [2]

where function = (functionality x delivery date x effort x quality )

Simply stated this means that, for example, an increase in functionality corresponds to a reduction in quality.

Management Style

Fergus has identified 5 types of people that can be available to work on a project. These are:

1. Can do the job and wants to do it.
2. Can do the job and is prepared to do it.
3. Can do the job and is not prepared to do it.
4. Can be trained or instructed to do the job.
6. Cannot do the job

In addition he has described management style as a continuum that stretches between hands on and hands off and is divided into 5 groupings A-E:

 Hands Off __________________ Hands On
          A    B    C    D    E

Taking our 5 types of people above and depending on whether they can be trusted or not, Fergus would recommend that the following would apply:

Trusted	Not Trusted
Type 1 A	B
Type 2 A	B
Type 3 E	Resolve to type 2 or 5
Type 4 C	D
Type 5 E	Resolve to type 2 or 5

Note the "E" case suggests that the person should not be on the project.

Detail

Fergus suggested that many of the project management problems that occur in a project would be minimised by ensuring that the project management is carried out at a detailed level. Ideally this should be done at the man/day level. Recognising that this is a heavy overhead it is suggested that a combination of distributed project management and a folded map methodology would alleviate this burden. Distributed project management has been outlined above, the folded map principle uses the analogy of navigating a journey using a large map. At first the complete map is used to identify the current general position and thereafter it is possible to fold the map such that the general area can be viewed in detail. From a localisation project point of view this means that it may be sufficient to develop a plan that contains the major milestones for the project along with a detailed work break down by man- day for the immediate 4-6 weeks. Thereafter updating the plan on a rolling weekly basis with the new detail.

Additional Skills

Fergus also covered the area of problem solving (using brainstorming techniques) and time management.

The Commercial side of Localisation

John Malone from Microsoft presented an overview of the commercial issues that organisations need to address in order to be successful. John dealt with these under the following headings:

• Business Goals
• Strategic Plan
• Operational Plan
• Managing the Plan
• Anything different about localisation?

John's model of the business planning process was presented as:

• Position Statement
• Business Goals
• Strategic Plan
• Operational Plan
• Measurement & Control
• The position statement looks at where in the market the company is.
• The business goals establish where the company would like to be.
• The strategic plan is the strategy required in the medium term to achieve the business goals taking into account the company's current position. Tools such as a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) were discussed as a mechanism for identifying gaps in the organisation that require fixing.
• The operational plan is the implementation of the strategic plan and usually takes the form of a budget.
• Measurement & control is the mechanism by which the organisation asses the results as against the plan by comparing the budget against the actual.
• Depending on the outcome there will be a need to go back and reassess any of the prior steps.
• John prepared a Profit & Loss Statement, Balance Sheet, Cashflow Statement and Budget for a hypothetical company and discussed the various strengths and weakness of the organisation versus its planned budget.

Conclusion

The overall feed back was very positive with virtually all answers rating the various aspects of the course as either good, very good or excellent. Gunnie Jacobsson calculated the results of the programme evaluations and will make the specific details available in her report.

Being a pilot project part of the course was designed to capture the comments from the participants and thereafter include those recommendations that appealed to the majority of those present. Gunnie also deals with these in her report.

Footnotes:

[1] How to Run Successful Projects by Fergus O'Connell. Published by Prentice Hall (ISBN 0-13-138793-6)

[2] How to Run Successful Projects, page 49.

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Alex McDonnell
IDOC Europe
Temple House
Temple Road, Blackrock
County Dublin, Ireland
Tel: + 353 1 28 83811
Fax: + 353 1 28 83747
email: alex@idoc.ie

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Objectives

At the conclusion of the workshop, attendees will:

• Understand the commercial background to managing localization projects
• Have learned a structured method for running any project
• Have applied this method to a localization case study or an actual localization project
• Have learned how to spread their time across multiple projects
• Have personal to-do lists covering all their activities for the next 6 weeks
• Have tackled and found solutions for a number of key problems/issues that affect them in their jobs

Contents

Introduction

Software localization overview

The commercial side of localization

• Step 1: Visualize the goal
• Step 2: Make a list of jobs
• Step 3: There must be one leader
• Step 4: Assign people to jobs
• Step 5: Manage expectations - backup and contingency plans
• Step 6: Leadership styles
• Step 7: Know what's going on
• Step 8: Tell people what's going on
• Step 9: Repeat steps 1-8 (Daily and weekly routines)
• Step 10: Project post-mortem

Running multiple projects