I believe that only processes which are effectively managed and continually improved can produce the quality results required by today's customers. Still, the same challenge is existing, and the quest is on to find quality improvement and cost reduction but still maintaining customer satisfaction. Can we improve the traditional approach toward vocabulary? Can we expand from one representative customer to a whole industry? Can we efficiently use the customer's dictionary? Is it good enough? (Not quite.)

You may have to adjust to a lot of significant variations: the vocabulary is quite large and eventually the terminology will be different (Marketing techniques call for this : you must always re-invent the wheel...) and I am not speaking about local variations in the terminology.

Do we have a way to get around this? Probably yes, and LISA is an important forum where ideas could be exposed and through a common work we might find a usable solution.

It is clear that multinational product developers must help to design and implement product plans that reflect a new market place characterized by linguistic and cultural diversity. To increase the efficiency of the Globalization Process and in order to participate efficiently in the development of a high-quality multinational user product we must step in before the writing of the product's information.

The Vocabulary

Vocabulary is "the issue" which generates a lot of discussion (even controversy...). Technical writers are using it; product managers are dealing with it; marketing people are, often, making it and translators are interpreting it for translation purposes. How do we make sense in this mixed up environment?

Perhaps we should look in the Controlled English (CE) technique. The term "Controlled English" refers to a writing system that consist of a limited numbers of terms (vocabulary) and a standard set of grammar rules to be used. This governs HOW the information is written and presented. A "CE" approach to documentation, or any form of information writing is claimed for :

• Improve the understanding of US/English material by people for who US/English is a second language as well as for those whose US/English is their native language.
• Substantially reduce Translation Time (and review time).
• Reducing Translation Costs.

CE systems are used widely in the aerospace industry and several companies are investing in CE systems (e.g., Caterpillar and Bull ) and working with US Universities (e.g Central Florida University and the Carnegie Institute). Within AT&T we did some performance benchmarking.

The benchmark was executed as follows: Several documents, currently available, were revised into a CE version. This was done by BULL writers, from BULL ILO -USA, using their own set of rules and their own dictionary (computer vocabulary). The tool use is called "MAX" (BULL Proprietary). NOTE: Although the AT&T material that was rewritten contained "computer terminology", the dictionary used was not an exact match for the AT&T terminology. The translation tool used was TSS by ALPNET Corp. It is an interactive tool.

The Translation Process

Four translator teams worked on this project. Team A & A1 translated sample A, standard US/English to French and German. Team B & B1 translated sample B, Controlled English to French and German. The four teams were given electronic files and were asked to record their time spent for each of the following phases:

1. Dictionary set up (pre-editing).
2. Translation (including personal proofreading).
3. Cross proofreading.
4. Corrections.

The document translated was part of a product User Guide, a 52 page document.

Results:

Overall, the CE version speeded up the total translation time by 15%. The phase 2 was reduced by 7% and the phase 3 was reduced by 11%.

The major gain was in the time it took to perform corrections : 50%.

Translators felt in most circumstances than the CE version was clearer and easier to understand( even for those which were not familiar with PC - terminology).They estimated that if we developed a Controlled English system containing AT&T specific terminology, they may reach 25 to 30 % reduction in the total translation time. This will be specially true for updates in documentation that contain repetitive material.

From the results of the benchmark, several recommendations were made and approved:

• Develop an AT&T specific or a business unit specific CE system and test pilot tool on a project.
• Validate quality/readability of CE version.

Conclusion:

In addition of the above recommendations, there will be some issues to be understood:

• We will have to implement a new writing method.
• We will have to prepare carefully International projects and prioritize which documents should be written first.
• Buying compliance checking tool(s) in order to avoid your technocal writers checking rules and editing by themselves.

Also do not forget:

• To integrate CE in the writing process progressively.
• You will notice a productivity drop during the first 3 to 6 months.

I believe that integrating such an approach will be a real payback and I suggest that within LISA we should initiate a SIG or a team to investigate and look deeper in this CE technique. The main reasons which prompt me to call such of action are:

• Electronic distribution will be prevalent and the new technology with multimedia and CD ROM will reduce the amount of paper -- but there will be an irreducible minimum of paper still around. I firmly believe that we evolve toward a paperless business environment.

Therefore:

• The importance of information update(s) to be quickly available (CD or On Line information) using repetitive material will be growing and growing.
• The need for translating such of information will be vital and even the Translation Memory will become faster so we will have to find a way to act before the translation phase otherwise it will be again an after fact situation. The simultaneous release in several languages of a product (initial release or update release) will also call for a solution.

CE is certainly not a reducing factor for the technical writers' creativity. It is a better way to provide multilingual information. Core vocabulary, synonyms and writing rules will have to be integrated and well prepared. This is a new challenge for all of us: Facilitating Technical Writing and Improving Translation at a lesser cost. If we miss that opportunity --our customers will not understand.

Alain Linden
AT & T Global Information Solutions
Les Espaces de Sophia
25 rue des Lucioles
F-06560 France
Tel: + 33 92 94 4515
Fax: + 33 92 94 4550
email: alain.linden@sophia.ncr.com