How can RWS or a language service provider help a corporate content department create, define and manage terminology?
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What parts of that can be outsourced?
We would first want to assess the company’s needs and the goals of terminology management before going into practical matters and starting a terminology project.
Then, we analyze the current state to answer the big questions, like what resources are available, which roles and responsibilities should be established for project participants and what should the terminology workflows look like.
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Outsourcing depends on the company. The important factor is where the experts are. If the company has its own content writers for all languages, they should be established as terminology providers and be supported by colleagues such as language quality managers, field experts and product managers. If your company outsources your language content, the language experts in charge should get involved in the terminology workflow.
Is it worth changing the term in the glossary later in the process if the term turns out to be wrong or not precise or users don't understand it?
Whether it is worth it to change a term could depend on many factors, like the time and cost needed to implement it or the volume of content or the number of systems or products in which this term has been used. But in most cases, I would say yes, it is worth it to make the change, since the aim of terminology management is for your content to be clear and precise and not lead to misunderstandings or expensive errors.
What concept metadata, in your experience, is best to collect? Any other thoughts/recommendations around metadata?
I would recommend taking a look at the ISO 12620 standard, which describes the most useful data categories for terminology management.
How different are the terminology management workflows for short projects versus long-term, more involved projects?
It is difficult to answer without knowing the context and goals of the terminology workflows, but the following factors can vary: the number of project participants, the time involved, the amount and the type of terminology data collected and the technology used to gather and validate it.
What terminology management system do you recommend?
It is difficult to answer this question without knowing your company, since it depends on many factors: your needs, goals and users, the time and budget you can invest in terminology management, etc.
Must there be a professional terminologist on board?
It is of course the best scenario, but if you don’t have a terminology expert in your company, I would recommend asking your subject matter experts to help with terminology and/or reach out for terminology consulting to help you to set up your workflows and make the right decisions.
Should your database be multilingual?
If you produce multilingual content, definitely yes! Translated terminology will make your translated content consistent and clear. You should organize your terms from different languages around central concepts as you would your source terms. Also, using a central database for different languages helps connect your users to one source of information.
If your database is multilingual, who should be in charge of providing terms in other languages?
It depends on your company structure. The important factor is where the experts are. If the company has its own experts for the target languages, they should be established as terminology providers and be supported by colleagues such as language quality managers and other experts. If the company outsources the translation of its content, the target-language experts (perhaps the terminologist, linguists, QA managers, product managers, field experts, etc.) in charge should get involved in the terminology workflow.
Could you make some recommendations where to find tools?
It is difficult to recommend one without knowing your company, as it depends on many factors: your needs, goals and users, the time and budget you can invest in terminology management, etc.
We have used a variety of terminology management systems like MultiTerm, TermXplorrer, TermWeb, CrossTerm, TermStar, etc., and all have their pros and cons.
Who should be part of the team to start terminology work?
Involve as many stakeholders as possible, depending on their time and your budget.
Is it possible to check terminology in the source-language (i.e., English) texts we get from our colleagues with a tool?
Yes, terminology checkers can be acquired as stand-alone tools or integrated into a translation or authoring system.
Which tool would you suggest for term extraction (at the moment we are using SDL Trados Multiterm 2019)?
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How do you prepare a termbase for a language you don’t understand yourself?
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What are the best QA tools you would suggest to check if correct terminology is used in a translation?
It depends on factors such as the language you need, your goals (do you want to get an extensive list or just the most frequent terms) and the time and budget you can invest in the term-mining process.
For source language extraction, we are currently using LogiTerm for English and French and a specially developed tool for German. For target languages, we favour manual research in TMs, bilingual documents, etc.
We would be happy to have a private discussion with you on our experience with different software!
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You should separate the responsibilities of the management of your terminology data by a terminology expert from the provision of target terminology by native experts. If you do not have these experts in your company and/or you outsource your translations, then let the experienced translators create and/or validate the target terminology data.
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We can recommend two tools we are currently using to check the correct use of target-language terminology: SDL Terminology Verifier (included in SDL Trados Studio) and checkTerm (by Kaleidoscope). But there are other ones, too, so to choose the best tool for your business, you will need to check your requirements and goals and investigate which tool would meet them.
If a termbase is already created for a particular client, what would be the best way to get the client involved in terminology verification (sometimes they don’t have time time/don’t want to check it)?
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What would be the minimum volume (word count) per project (different projects, for example) needed to create terminology?
You could ask that the terminology be validated by your client on a per-project basis. Send your client a list of terminology found in your current project and ask them to approve it or to provide the terminology changes required. They may of course delegate this to a product expert or similar colleague close to the product.
If your client does not have time for it, then you will have to reach out to the best experts available, which may be the content writers and/or translators.
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It is not a question of content volume, but more of the importance of correct and consistent terminology in the content. In our webinar, we gave you some criteria to find out if terms/concepts are important enough to be included in your terminology effort. It does not matter if you have 10 or 100 terms in your project; what is important is when:
By working this way, you ensure consistency in your multilingual documentation.
Who has the final say in the creation of a target-language term? The translator, linguist or cultural expert?
It depends on your company and your experts. The best way would be to involve all those experts in the terminology creation work and define the most important criteria for your terminology. Should your term be easy to understand by your target audience, or is it more important that it complies with grammar rules and legal or technical standards? If you need one ultimate decision-maker, you may want to choose the product expert or the marketing manager—someone who is close to the messaging and who has linguistic knowledge.
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