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Terminology Management Best Practices

Heather Turo, Language Analyst

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Agenda

o Terminology Overview

o The Impact of Inconsistency

o Benefits of Terminology

Management

o Terminology Management –

Getting Started

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Best Practices overview: Objectives

Reduce time-to-market for

delivery of global content

Reduce translation costs

Increase automation

and content recycling

Increase quality

of source content

Reduce ambiguity

Enhance corporate branding

through “one voice”

globalization strategy

Terminology Overview

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Traditional position of Terminology Management (TMM) in global project workflow

○ Ad hoc TMM

○ Reactive project-specific TMM

○ No influence on document production, i18n

Terminology

Management

Start Source

Language

Project

Start

Localization

Project

Ship

Source

Language

Product

Development

Localization

Ship

Localized

Product

End-Item

Inspection

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Challenges of reaching a global audience

o Everyone speaks a different language

─ It’s easier to do it in “my mother tongue”

o Coordinating the simultaneous delivery of information in multiple languages is complex

─ Localized content in local language meeting

local cultures

─ Although 90% of content has a global

audience, only 10% is presented in the local

language

o Remaining agile and competitive

─ Ensuring brand consistency across global

markets whilst accelerating time-to-market

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What is Terminology?

○ Vocabulary used in specialized subject fields (domain, company, etc.)

○ One term one concept

○ Concepts: units of thought or knowledge

○ Termbase: a centralized DB that contains (ideally) all of a company’s core terms (monolingual or multilingual)

○ Terminology management: the process of choosing, defining, tracking and consistently using vocabulary for a specific purpose

○ Lexical data is the DNA of a company’s collective knowledge, expertise, and identity

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Terminology Management spectrum

Continuum of practice in a range

defined by multiple factors:

o Enterprise type and mission

o Criticality of terminology

for core business

o Criticality of quality

and branding concerns

o Recognition of tangible

and intangible ROI

o Terminology user groups

o Buy-in by stakeholders (design,

engineering, marketing, as well

as client & in-country partners,

but above all, top-level

management)

Enterprise Type:

Nature of Enterprise

Government

Industry

Research institutes

Localization/

translation

bureaus

Web content

management providers

Freelance & in-house technical writers, translators

Librarians & knowledge organization environments

Terminology

Management

o Nature of client

o Text type

o Negotiation

Client/vendor

agreements

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Terminology workflow task issues

o Language planning

o Standardization

o Document production

o Controlled language document production

o Activity in localization & multilingual documentation environments

o Support for machine vs. human-oriented translation

o Content management in dynamically changing Web environments

o Terminology management for enterprise solutions (whatever that may be)

Specific task types:

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Cost effectiveness

o For individual translators?

o For groups working together?

o For bureaus and translation

services in government and

industry?

Terminology management

activity costs time and money.

Is it economically feasible?:

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Criticality of terminology

○ Potential for market losses

○ Potential for communicative losses

○ Risk of product failure, human injury

○ Adverse effects on branding efforts

(marketing issues)

○ Relative significance of terminology

─ To the process

─ To the product

─ Example: Terminology is more

critical if you are selling software

than if you are selling wheat

The Impact of

Inconsistency

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Inconsistency examples

o Shortcut, hotkey,

or accelerator key?

o The business – mission

statements, elevator pitches,

boilerplate text

o Technology – business

applications, internal processes

Product code name –

internal name vs.

marketing name

Feature names

Terms used to explain:

Nouns, images, colors,

email addresses

o “Longhorn” vs. Microsoft

Windows Server?

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The business cannot remain agile

o Inconsistencies cause:

─ Inability to reuse content ($$$)

─ Inability to leverage other

internal knowledge (quality)

─ Inability to leverage existing

translations ($$$)

─ Inability to reach customers

simultaneously across all

markets (not streamlined)

Terminology Enables Global

Information Delivery

Technical Writing

Marketing

Sales BackOffice Systems

Customer Support

FAQs, Support Webpage,

Issue Tracking, Quality

Management

Accounts, ISO Standards,

Quality Control

RFPs, RFIs,

Presentations, Overviews

Online Help,

Quick Facts

Website, Brochures,

Collateral, PR

Every department creates content

using the same content lifecycle

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The customer impact

o Inconsistent publications

o Frustrated customers

Engineer uses one term… Author uses another…

Different terms cause user confusion,

leading to support issues and declining loyalty

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One

Inconsistency

Product

Collateral

Different

Languages

The “trickle-down effect” of inconsistency

Manuals Web FAQs Brochures Pre-

Sales

Product

Development

Market

Penetration

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Central store

of terminology

The power of consistent terminology

Create Manage Translate Publish

Apply terminology

consistently

at the source

Apply terminology

consistently in

multiple languages

Benefits of Term

Management

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Terminology management: ROI

○ Greater general applicability of specific

terminological units (greater frequency)

= greater the return on terminology

management costs

○ Greater the quality or competition-

related criticality = greater the return

○ The greater the degree of integration

between straight CAT, TM and MT

applications, the greater the payback

in leverageable data

○ The greater the integration of

controlled language or i18n tools

& processes

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Fundamental assertions

Terminology resources

constitute a capital asset

Support branding

and corporate image

Foster customer

relations and simplify

product support

Reduce risk and enhance

quality assurance

Support technical

communication,

translation and

localization

Save time and effort

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Term management: Quality

○ Supports high quality, unambiguous

source language texts

○ Enables the efficient creation of

translated target language texts

○ Ensures consistent interface usage

and documentation during the

localization process

○ Supports automatic quality checks

for source and target texts

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Term management: Standards

○ Terminology management supports

terminology standardization

○ Terminology standardization supports

the creation of standards for products

and services

○ The use of standardized or legally

mandated terminology ensures legal

certainty in the interpretation

of legal texts

○ Standardized equivalents prevent

ambiguity in laws and standards

in bi- and multilingual countries

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Term management: Tech communication

○ Supports clear, unambiguous

communication across the enterprise

and with outside customers

and partners

○ Supports initial employee orientation

○ Supports continuous education

and training

○ Supports outsourcing, particularly for

technical communication, translation

and localization

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Term management: Time savings

○ For term search & retrieval

○ Editing and rework

○ Translation and localization

○ Document retrieval

○ Employee orientation and training

○ Internal & external transaction times

(reduced ambiguities)

○ Product time-to-market

○ Customer service

Terminology Management: Getting Started

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What is Terminology Management?

○ Consistency is key!

○ Activities include: Collecting the terms

─ Identifying and eliminating inconsistencies

─ Controlling synonyms and abbreviations

─ Documenting metadata

• Definitions

• Context

• Part of Speech

○ Collect company and

industry-specific terms

○ Exclude commonly used words

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What is Terminology Management?

○ Who needs it (though everyone benefits from it)?:

─ Content Writers

─ Translators

─ Client reviewers

○ What else can it be used for?

─ Resources for content management systems

─ Resources for authoring tools (Acrolinx)

─ Translation tools (CAT tools, Studio)

─ Search optimization tools (SDL Multiterm)

○ Who contributes?

─ Writers can suggest but centralization is crucial

─ Terminologist needs to be appointed

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How do we get started?

○ Who will pull the terms?

– Internal?

– Professional terminologist?

○ Is there one writing “standard” to follow?

○ Who will manage the terms?

– Internal?

– Localization expert?

○ Are you going to use a tool?

○ Who can suggest/change terms?

After these roles are established, we can

move towards a sustainable workflow

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Traditional position of Terminology Management (TMM) in global project workflow

○ Ad hoc TMM

○ Reactive project-specific TMM

○ No influence on document production, i18n

Terminology

Management

Start Source

Language

Project

Start

Localization

Project

Ship

Source

Language

Product

Development

Localization

Ship

Localized

Product

End-Item

Inspection

33

Rationalized project-oriented TMM

○ TMM as a function of QA (Quality Assurance) management

○ TMM and QA upstreamed to planning stage

○ Proactive TMM

Terminology

Management

Start Source

Language

Project

Start

Localization

Project

Ship

Source

Language

Product Development

Localization

Process

Simship

Localized

Product

Localization

QA Process

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Information feedback loop

Project

Post Mortem

Reviewer

Corrections

Suggestion

Receipt

Terminologist

Update

Procedure

Master TDB Published

TDB

User

Suggestions

Research

Verification

Approval

Update

Data Entry

Feedback loop

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Workflow of terminology translation Analyst/client compile initial

terminology list

Lead Translator

reviews/implements

changes

Lead Translators provide

terminology translation

Review (2nd Translator)

100% edit & proofreading

Send terminology to Client

reviewer for approval

Client Reviewer send

comments back to SDL

Final terminology list

is approved & used

Changes?

Discussion with

Client Reviewer

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Remaining agile and competitive is key

o Gain competitive advantage through rapid deployment of information across target global markets

o Increase productivity and control costs

Enhance Customer Experience

Ensure Consistent Branding

Reduce Time-to-market

o Stimulate loyalty across geographical markets by communicating in the language of your customer

o Respond to individual preferences in local language

o Maintain a consistent brand whilst respecting cultural nuance

o Deliver a seamless global experience across all communications

Retain your customers and

maintain market-share

Drive shareholder value

Beat your competitors to market and win

market-share

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Next steps

Terminology:

○ Establishing roles for who pulls/creates

new terms, who manages and who can

provide feedback

○ Establishing “baseline” content

○ Establishing how information is distributed

○ Setting workflows in place

○ Refining workflows already set in place

○ Establishing how we can use terminology

to our advantage in source creation

○ Constant evaluation of process

SDL MultiTerm

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SDL MultiTerm

○ SDL MultiTerm

– Central location to store terminology

○ SDL MultiTerm Desktop

– Integrates with CAT tools or content

optimization software (Acrolinx)

○ SDL MultiTerm Extract

– Auto term extract

○ SDL MultiTerm online

– Online solution uses the same

terminology without version

control issues

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Questions?

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