What is mechanical quality assurance?
Quality assurance (QA) is a set of mechanical checks that pick up errors in translated files that a human eye easily misses. These may be missing translations, number errors, inconsistencies, punctuation issues etc. Many QA tools also contain a glossary consistency checking function, which checks whether the terms appearing in the glossary or termbase have been used in the translation.
Why do we need to do it?
Because no matter how conscientious and good a translator or a reviser is, certain issues are easily missed, especially in a longer translation. A QA check helps to ensure that there are no errors that a mechanical QA check could have picked up. It should be carried out at the end of each translation assignment together with complete spellchecking of the translation.
What projects should be QA'ed?
QA checking is a mandatory step in Sandberg workflows, and you are asked to confirm that QA checking has been done when you complete a project and return the Sandberg QC checklist. All projects and files that can be QA checked, either using a built-in QA checking function in the translation tool or using an external QA checker, must be QA checked. A QA checker is only able to check bilingual files, that is, files inside a translation tool or files exported in bilingual format (source and target present) from a translation tool.
What tool should I use?
Most sophisticated translation tools such as memoQ and SDL Trados Studio have a built-in QA checker which can be run on a single file at a time, or in batch mode on all files in the project (recommended). Refer to instructions provided to you by Sandberg or the tool's internal Help for more information about how to run the QA check.
- memoQ: Sandberg's QA checking settings will be applied to the project automatically. Launch the QA check from Operations > Run QA either from an open file or after selecting multiple files in the Translations view. See more information about the QA check in the memoQ Help under "Quality Assurance".
- SDL Trados Studio: Launch the QA check from Tools > Verify from an open file or on multiple files from the Files view and Batch tasks. See more information about the QA check in the Studio Help under "Verifying Translations". Check the settings to make sure that you have the minimum required checks covered.
External QA tools may also be used as long as they support the bilingual file type in question. There are many external QA tools on the market. At Sandberg, we use ApSic Xbench.
So what's the minimum level of checking required?
These checks should be included as a minimum level of checking:
- Tags
- Forgotten or empty translations, untranslated segments
- Inconsistency in 100% match translations (repetitions & 100% matches)
- Numbers
- Double blanks
- Other punctuation checks possible in the tool
100% matches and 101% matches (Context/Perfect/ICE matches) can be excluded from the QA check in most tools if these don't belong to the scope of the project.
Who should run the QA check?
- Translator if no revision is included in the project, before final delivery
OR
- Finaliser if revision is included in the project, before final delivery
Check with the PM if you are unsure who is the finaliser, the translator or the reviser.