Introduction

This portfolio is a compilation of a translation project done within a translation management system called SDL WorldServer by my team TMS Spice Girls in the course Translation Management Systems during the 2017 fall term, and three blog posts titled “Quality Models & QA”, “Translation Management Systems for Crowdsourcing” and “Tips for selecting the best TMS”. All of these support my comprehension of how to implement a translation project in a TMS, what features and functions a TMS should have to meet the needs of completing a translation project and my evaluation on the selection and adoption of a suitable TMS for a company.

Translation Project in SDL WorldServer

The translation project our team has completed in SDL WorldServer through this semester was to translate two content pages of marketing materials in the format of XML files from English to Simplified Chinese for our client King & Wood Mallesons Law Firm and the process included pre-translation setup, translation and QA.  The final project files that our team created when doing the project include a proposal, the source and target texts, pseudo translations and the presentation slides on lessons learned, and the project folder can be accessed via the hyperlink above. The project was done based on what we’ve learned over the semester, including how a TMS like SDL WorldServer operates in different aspects related to, for instance, finance, user accounts, QA models and translation. Moreover, the presentation slides also contain things our team think WorldServer should improve based on the challenges and problems we met during the project. This project gave me a clearer and more detailed picture of how to manage a translation project inside a TMS and what the workflow would be like.

Blog Posts

Each of the three blog posts explores a different aspect of translation management systems and refers to either a video conference or articles posted by experts in the translation and localization industry.

  • “Quality Models & QA”

Based on a video introducing MQM (Multidimensional Quality Metrics), the article explores the benefits of MQM, the reasons why it’s needed and how it might influence the use of TMSs.

  • “Translation Management Systems for Crowdsourcing”

With the reference of three articles, the blog post illustrates the definition of translation crowdsourcing, the differences between crowdsourced translation and traditional translation, the features a TMS might have to implement crowdsourcing and how crowdsourced translation should be managed.

  • “Tips for selecting the best TMS”

Based on four online articles, this blog post explains the things a company should take into consideration when selecting the best TMS from the points of view of both the client side and the vendor side. In addition, it elaborates the most important factor that I think a company should focus on when choosing TMSs, which is, the translators.