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STC 2008: Unifying Content Development and Localization at Palm
Tuesday, June 03, 2008 — posted by Sarah
[Update: I forgot to identify the presenter, Jane Faraola of Palm.](Palm is a client of ours.)
The problem Palm faced was outright hostility between content development and localization. The origin of this was conflict because of late-breaking changes after the "declared" UI freeze. The content hand-off to localization might have to be repeated up to eight times after repeated UI freezes.
Things had to change -- meetings were contentious and localization said at one point that they
"wanted to break our fingers."
Timeline...
1/06 initiative kickoff
conferences, vendor demos
3/07 reorganization joined UA and localization services
investigate
big change, big impact
* adopt structure authoring, possibly a new toolset
* consider DITA
* select and implement a CMS
* select and implement TMS
* add staff to handle add'l workload
* select and implement a hosted PM tool
small change, big impact
* adopt structure authoring
* select and implement a translation management system
* select and implement a hosted PM tool
Challenges
* resistance from authoring staff
* lack of IT support
* product dev times with no room for error
* limited budget
They chose...small change, big impact
* structure authoring/FrameMaker 8
* adopt XSLT for conversion
* implement TMS
tried CMS pilot, but figured a year to implement
didn't think CMS space was fully mature
FM/DITA had issues with tables, indexing
XML not the greatest tool for publishing printed doc
Palm timelines do not allow time to fail
head-to-head competition between LionBridge and SDL for TM tools
moved to str FrameMaker
October 07 loc tool
initial metrics
* FM7 to FM8 in less than two months
Success!
* TMS up and running in less than 5 weeks
6 months with a lot of hiccups
* lower overall authoring, DTP and conversion costs
Not yet. Authoring and DTP costs are holding steady, conversion costs are down.
* reduce loc timelines
Not yet. Only three months in, but optimistic
Rising requirements for localization...
2006 - 17% of deliverables in non-English
2007 - 30%
2008 - 35%
Integrating content dev and localization is a cost-effective approach to creating the highest quality multilingual deliverables
Active project management from both teams
Headaches
* more email
* more process
* continuous change
* pressure to "not touch the doc"
* defining ownership on a product
What's still needed?
* effective tools to simplify localization
* simplify processes
* create great content for local markets instead of "just localize"
new mission statement
empower users worldwide to successfully incorporate stuff
English development versus localization staff = 1-to-1 ratio
SDL TMS is workflow automation. manages translation memory. very customized workflow.
Interesting overview of an organizational change that was needed to be more effective.
Labels: conferences, stc2008
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