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Terminology Management Best Practices
This document discusses best practices for terminology management. It outlines the benefits of consistent terminology usage, such as reduced costs, increased quality, and enhanced branding. Inconsistencies in terminology can negatively impact customers and business agility. The document recommends establishing roles for collecting, managing and providing feedback on terminology. It also suggests implementing terminology workflows and using terminology to advantage in content creation, translation and localization. Terminology management is presented as a way to enhance the customer experience, ensure consistent branding, and reduce time-to-market.
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Terminology Management Best Practices
- 1. SDL Proprietary andConfidential Terminology Management Best Practices Heather Turo, Language Analyst, SDL SDL Language Customer Success Summit 2015
- 2. 2 Image placeholder Click onimage icon Browse to image you want to add to slide Agenda o Terminology Overview o The Impact of Inconsistency o Benefits of Terminology Management o Terminology Management – Getting Started
- 3. 3 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
- 4. 4 Challenges of reachinga 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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- 6. 6 What is Terminology? ○Vocabulary used in specialized subject fields (domain, company, etc.) ○ One term one concept ○ 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
- 7. 7 Terminology Management spectrum Continuumof 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
- 8. 8 Terminology workflow taskissues 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:
- 9. 9 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
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- 11. 11 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?
- 12. 12 The business cannotremain 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
- 13. 13 The customer impact oInconsistent publications o Frustrated customers Engineer uses one term… Author uses another… Different terms cause user confusion, leading to support issues and declining loyalty
- 14. 14 One Inconsistency Product Collateral Different Languages The “trickle-down effect”of inconsistency Manuals Web FAQs Brochures Pre- Sales Product Development Market Penetration
- 15. 15 Central store of terminology Thepower of consistent terminology Create Manage Translate Publish Apply terminology consistently at the source Apply terminology consistently in multiple languages
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- 17. 17 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
- 18. 18 Fundamental assertions Terminology resources constitutea 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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- 20. 20 What is TerminologyManagement? ○ 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
- 21. 21 What is TerminologyManagement? ○ 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
- 22. 22 How do weget 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
- 23. 23 Traditional position ofTerminology 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
- 24. 24 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 ProductDevelopment Localization Process Simship Localized Product Localization QA Process
- 25. 25 Information feedback loop Project PostMortem Reviewer Corrections Suggestion Receipt Terminologist Update Procedure Master TDB Published TDB User Suggestions Research Verification Approval Update Data Entry Feedback loop
- 26. 26 Workflow of terminologytranslation 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
- 27. 27 Remaining agile andcompetitive 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
- 28. 28 Next steps Terminology: ○ Establishingroles 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
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- 30. Copyright © 2008-2014SDL plc. All rights reserved. All company names, brand names, trademarks, service marks, images and logos are the property of their respective owners. This presentation and its content are SDL confidential unless otherwise specified, and may not be copied, used or distributed except as authorised by SDL. Global Customer Experience Management