In May 1997, Nancy Hoft Consulting used four case studies in international technical communication as teaching tools during its workshop entitled World-Ready Information Products, which was held in conjunction with the annual conference of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) in Toronto. Attendees consisted mostly of veteran technical communicators and publications managers from all over the world.

The cases generated lively discussion, probably because the typical business constraints (time, money, resources) did not exist. Without them, participants were free to explore solutions that might otherwise have remained dormant notions.

In the spirit of this post-conference workshop, Nancy Hoft Consulting has dedicated an area of its corporate Web site to case studies in localization. This area posts real, current cases and offers bulletin board functionality for people to engage in virtual discussions about the issues in each case.

The current collection of cases are those used in the post-conference workshop. These focus on international technical communication and explore issues in controlled English, choosing translation vendor, tools selection, and cost containment.

LISA members and their colleagues are cordially invited to visit the Web site and participate in the virtual discussion. The URL to the cases is:
http://www.world-ready.com/cases/

To complement the cases, another Web page offers a frequently updated list of hyperlinks to Web sites offering information about software localization, multilingualism on the Web, translation and linguistics, culture, controlled language, and more:
http://www.world-ready.com/r_intl.htm

The following sections present issues from the four current cases.

Case 1: Going Global

The Localization Manager has a meeting in one month with the technical publications department and its management. At this meeting, she will give a formal presentation that: 1) states her reasons for wanting the writers to use global (i.e. in this case controlled) English, and 2) offers a short- and long-term strategy for how the department can migrate to controlled English as painlessly as possible. How should the localization manager address 1 and 2 in her presentation? Consider who the stakeholders are and how they might respond to your suggestions.

Case 2: Counting Costs

There are three issues that the Documentation Manager is concerned about:

1. The Documentation Manager writes, "If you can't translate everything—context-sensitive Help, printed user guides, on-line user guides, and administrative/ programming guides—what will give you the biggest bang for your buck?" In asking this question, the Manager wonders whether the answer differs depending on the marketplace (e.g., does the European market prefer on-line documentation? What about the Japanese?)
2. How do you confirm that the results of the translation meet your requirements? The Documentation Manager writes, "Our only idea at this time is to have someone here who speaks French or German check out the translated results. The trouble is finding people like that who have the time to do a thorough job. To put this issue another way: we could pay a lot of money and the translated versions could be terrible, and we wouldn't know until the product had been in the marketplace for months. How do we avoid that?"
3. Once the initial translation work is done, the Documentation Manager assumes that the translation vendor will do incremental updates for future releases. Are there suggestions for how to manage this process? For example, how do most translation vendors expect to receive these changes?

Address each issue in detail. Consider whether some or all of the questions are valid. Offer feedback and suggest solutions. Also consider suggesting how the Documentation Manager and his staff might educate themselves in issues relating to international technical communication.

Case 3: Desperately Seeking Tools

The Technical Communication department is considering a tools strategy to help them take advantage of previous translations, speed up translation, and reduce its cost. They are currently evaluating two possible strategies: database publishing with SGML and translation memory technology.

Weigh the pros and cons of both strategies and consider if there are others that the manager should consider. Consider the impact of time; the impact of this technology on the company's translation vendors, some of whom are small firms; types of expenses incurred in migrating to such strategies; and how this migration affects both documentation and translation development cycles.

Case 4: Managing the Translation Process

The Technical Communication department needs a plan that lets them leverage the basic documentation set, to maximize its use for their myriad customizations and subsequent translations. They also need a plan that lets them make the transition from sending the source documentation to the international project team to bringing this function "in-house" smoothly and successfully. What advice do you have for the Documentation Manager? Be specific.

A Call for Cases: Project Management and Localization

Nancy Hoft Consulting is currently soliciting new cases that focus on the theme of project management and localization. LISA members are invited to contact the company if they wish to participate. Two to four cases will be chosen and will be edited for anonymity, focus, and readability. The Web publishing date of these new cases is expected to be in early December 1997.

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Nancy Hoft
Nancy Hoft Consulting
P.O. Box 155
Houghton, MI 49931-0155 USA
Tel +01 906/482.5658
Fax +01 906/482.0019
E-mail & Web
nhoft@world-ready.com
http://www.world-ready.com