Are we really fussing over a comma?

Quality Assurance in Translation Translation of Quality Assurance

What is Quality Assurance?
Quality Assurance (QA) a systematic process that guarantees a level of accordance
with a given standard. It has two principles:

Fit for purpose: The finished translation should be suitable for the intended purpose
Right first time: Mistakes should be eliminated

Important!
Quality Assurance is NOT Quality Controls

Quality Controls are the controls/checks in place to enforce of check the quality
like spelling, grammar, etc. The result of these controls is the overall level of quality
assurance.
What standards are already in existence?
LISA QA Model: Designed to help you manage the quality assurance process for all the components in a localized
product, including functionality, documentation and language issues

ISO 9001: 2015 quality in localization is about meeting client requirements, while also sticking to industry and language
standards. (Quality is the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics of an object fulfill requirements.)

TAUS Dynamic Quality Framework (DFW): Framework that identifies eight content categories, seven different quality
evaluation models and specific content profiles then recommends the most appropriate quality evaluation models for
particular profiles.

SAE J2450: Started as a translation metric that could be used by automotive companies. Was transferred to the
translation world by the Translation quality metric taskforce.

Multidimensional Quality Metrics (MQM): Driven by universities that combined forces with TAUS. Its framework for
describing and defining quality metrics used to assess the quality of translated texts and to identify specific issues in
those texts

EN 15038 : 2006 Establishes and defines requirements for provision of quality translations. It was developed especially
for translation services providers. The EN 15038 standard ensures the consistent quality of the service.

ISO 17100:2015: Based on 15038. Specifies requirements for all aspects of the translation process directly affecting the
quality and delivery of translation services.
Why are there standards?
Minimize (if not eliminate) subjectivity.
Allow for quantification of problems

In essence
You define what quality is for your situation
You evaluate the current content
You record and correct errors and/or defects
You analyze the data, identify gaps and improve final result

You can adopt

A holistic approach, i.e. no specification of types of errors,
An analytic approach, i.e. identify issues and quantify them, set customized thresholds for a
Pass/No Pass situation
An automatic approach, i.e. identify and categorize issues but no quantification ensues.
What elements make a
translation project flawless?
Correct use of
Terminology

Consistent

Standard
Formatting/Layout

guidelines
Correct use of
Grammar

Style
Guidelines Correct Tonality

Translatability
Issues No Spelling or
Typing Errors

Visual
Elements
End result as if a
native wrote it
Any Quality Control Tools for the freelancers?

QC Tools
within TEnT
Quality
Control Tools
Independent
QC Tools
Most usual QC tool components

Inconsistencies
Punctuation
Numbers
Word List
Regular Expressions
Tags
Terminology
Spaces
Capitalization
Format
Segment verification
Can be customizable
.

SDL Trados Studio 2017 Wordfast Transcheck

Document Verifier Forbidden characters
QA Checker Partial
Terminology Verifier Punctuations
Tag Verification Terminology
XML Validation Untranslatable

emoQ SDL Trados 2007

Segments and terms Available in TagEditor
Numbers Tools > Plug-ins > Verifiers > SDL Trados QA
Punctuation Checker 2.0
Spaces
Capitals
Character
Inline tags
Trados Studio 2017
Wordfast - TransCheck
Trados 207 - TagEditor
MemoQ
. QA
ApSIC Xbench (99USD/year) ErrorSpy (250USD)
Version 2.9 of Xbench is freeware!
Untranslated segments Terminology check
same source text but a different target text Terminology check of the source language
same target text but a different source text Consistency check
target text is identical to the source text Partial consistency check
tag mismatches Numbers check
number mismatches Completeness check
URL mismatches Tags check
alphanumeric mismatches Spell check
unpaired parentheses Acronyms check
unpaired quotes Format check
repeated words Typography check
double blanks Customized checks
Spell-checking issues Creation of your own error categories
deviation from the key terms of the project
Segments that contain a word in CamelCase
a word fully in uppercase in the source or
target text without a counterpart.
ApSIC Xbench
ErrorSpy
I. QA
Verifika QA Distiller Okapi CheckMate
(89USD/year) (249USD) (free, open source)

Omissions Omissions any bilingual or multilingual

Untranslatables
Forbidden Words
Letter Case
Punctuation and Spacing
Quotes and Apostrophes
Measurement
Tags
Numbers and Ranges
Miscellaneous
Consistency Check
Terminology Check
Spelling & Grammar Check
User-defined Check
Source and target language
inconsistencies
Language-independent
formatting
Language-dependent
formatting
Terminology
Search
Regular expressions
Number formatting
Measurement system
Forbidden/required spaces
Quotation marks and
apostrophes
Allowed characters
Untranslatables
file format supported by the
Okapi filters.
Repeated words
Corrupted characters
Patterns in the source text
that should correspond to a
given pattern in the
translation.
Inline codes differences.
Translation suspiciously longer
or shorter than the source.
Missing translation.
Leading and trailing spaces.
Okapi CheckMate
Verifica
QA Distiller
Studio 2017 QA Process
Xbench QA Process