An Increased Appreciation for Software Localization

08Oct, 2014

An Increased Appreciation for Software Localization

Having lived all my life in India and the United States so far, I have never had a language issue. I have been comfortable communicating with people in English. This week I am in Frankfurt for the Frankfurt Book Fair – one of the largest of its kind that draws hundreds of thousands of people from across the globe. I am fascinated by the representation here from people across the globe – all the way from Latvia, to Vietnam, to Africa, to Brazil, to really some of the most remote corners on planet. As I am with all of these people, I see how one can get handcuffed and language constrained which made me additionally appreciate all the work that localization engineers do, more than ever before. Despite the language constraint, I was so connected with the people at the fair from the technology angle, which further re-assures the global penetration of software and devices. This is the bridge that localization engineers have created – a bridge whether you are a developer, or a content maker or a tester.

For example, we at QA InfoTech, specialize in localization testing, providing Quality Assurance and testing services for several clients in scores of languages, none of which we actually know besides English. This experience now gives me a better opportunity to appreciate what our testers do despite not knowing the language – whether it is localization functional testing, or a checklist/nuances to test for various locales, or a repository of keywords to enhance the testing productivity across locales, or working with content SMEs to integrate our testing efforts with theirs etc. All of these tighten the ecosystem to create global applications which have become a necessity off-late for any organization. Thanks to the Frankfurt Book Fair – I will see globalized applications with a greater sense of appreciation moving forward, acknowledging all the efforts that have gone into it, behind the scenes.

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About the Author

QA InfoTech
Established in 2003, with less than five testing experts, QA InfoTech has grown leaps and bounds with three QA Centers of Excellence globally; two of which are located in the hub of IT activity in India, Noida, and the other, our affiliate QA InfoTech Inc Michigan USA. In 2010 and 2011, QA InfoTech has been ranked in the top 100 places to work for in India.

Parov H.

I think anyone looking to translate software products should make part of their strategy the use of a specialized localization tool, in order to automate whatever processes possible. This way, the translation and localization management can be seriously improved, saving incredible amounts of time.
The software localization tool https://poeditor.com/ is, I think, a reliable online solution, that can be adjusted to many l10n workflows.