For the past three weeks I have been working with XTRF – a Translations Projects Management and Automation tool – as part of a Localization Projects Management course at MIIS. Before this I used Basecamp, a similar Projects Management tool, and I have to say that on nearly all counts I prefer XTRF.
Not to say it’s the perfect tool and that I didn’t have my share of frustrations while learning it, but it’s clear that XTRF puts a lot of resources in the user’s hands.
However, the thing that I look for most in a management tool isn’t what I see. I can deal with some troubleshooting or any weird UI that I need to. But if my clients, customers, or vendors have a bad experience, then there’s an issue – and I think that on this front XTRF is very useful indeed.
The Portals
One thing that XTRF does exceptionally well is in how it divides the roles in a project into functionally different webpages, or portals. In the above screenshot, note the green sidebar and the options available. Anyone that the Project Manager has assigned as a vendor for a project sees this green-themed portal. Compare that with the below screenshot:
Note now the red theme and the different options listed on the side. This is the Project Manager’s portal, from where they can get a view of the entire project and those involved. Compare that one more time with the below screenshot:
This is the Customer Portal. Looks very different, right? The two buttons most important to a client appear right on the top: “Request a Quote” and “Launch a Project.”
The design differences on each of these portals make it a snap to organize. The fact that they are customized to each role is remarkable – something you admittedly wouldn’t notice if you were a customer or vendor who had never seen the Project Manager hub, but an attractive idea nonetheless.
The Customer Portal
So, it looks nice, but is it actually easy for a customer to use? While the Project Manager portal offers an overwhelming amount of options that can sometimes be frustrating, the customer portal cuts down on everything unnecessary to make way for a step-by-step wizard.
Even someone relatively tech-illiterate should have no trouble getting a project started once the Project Manager sends them their Customer Portal. In addition, the portal can be customized with a variety of widgets to make things even more intuitive.
Of course, you can’t finish the customer’s project without the backbone of any project: your vendors. Or, if you want to split hairs, every vendor apart from the Project Manager.
The Vendor Portal
When you assign roles to your team, it’s not helpful for anyone if they can see all the irrelevant minutia of the Project Manager portal. This is especially true if you work with someone outside of your normal team, like a third-party proofreader your client wants, or a translator you don’t normally work with.
The pleasantly green-themed vendor portal allows the Project Manager to control exactly what their translators, proofreaders, quality checkers, and anyone else sees. Moreover, it lets the Project Manager control when everyone sees it. Let’s take a quick look at the Project Manager portal again.
We’re back to the Project Manager’s red theme. In this Workflow, the Project Manager has a lot of control over when exactly each step is revealed to the relevant party. Incidentally, this is also where the Project Manager can assign people to each step, cancel a step, add or remove steps, or even add jobs within each step. You’ll note that with these settings, it is possible for a Project Manager to start a project and not touch it at all from then on, if they so choose.
I shouldn’t even have to say it now, right? Green theme, we’re back to the Vendor Portal. Note in the above screenshot that the project file goes straight from vendor to vendor, allowing each to note the nature of any files they add to each. In this example, you can see that the Job Type in the overview on the right…
… is listed as Editing. So, this vendor is designated as an Editor, and can download the file, edit it, and upload it before sending it onto the next person.
The Project Manager Portal (in brief)
The question I posed at the beginning of the post was whether XTRF is good for the customer and vendor – my reasoning being that it’s OK for me as a Project Manager to have some complicated UI and the occasional bug to work through, but if my customer is thrown off by a bug, or if my team’s work is interrupted by an unclear process, it could be a costly mistake.
As such, I am not going into the Project Manager portal much in this post beyond the following. The portal is a little dense, and isn’t something that you can pick up immediately and start using, unfortunately. However, if you give yourself some time to experiment before using it for a project, it is forgiving with mistakes.
Red, Project Manager portal – you get it. When a Project Manger is starting a project, this handy tooltip comes up on the right side. See the grayed-out “Start 0 Job(s)” button? XTRF will not even let you start a job until all the required settings are filled, and I liked the clear list it gives quite a lot. This gives a safety net when working with XTRF if you are unsure of how to use it yet.
The Verdict
I have not used XTRF for an assignment with an unfamiliar client yet, and so I hesitate to make a definitive judgement on it; however, from this experimenting, I can feel comfortable showing a client their XTRF portal and organizing a project around it. The fact that there’s no way for the client or vendors to stumble upon some weird settings makes me feel safe, and yet everything being in one tool makes for great organization. Especially if you care about ease-of-use for your clients and vendors, I heartily recommend giving XTRF a try.