Courses in computer-assisted translation integrating project management

Teachers, as well as students, should be familiar with principles and methods of  translation memory  and terminology management .

The main learning objective of these courses is to enhance competence in  CAT translation , in a real-life working environment. It is important to stress that the focus of the course is on CAT and not project management. Some PM concepts and a final project can be included in order to make the students aware of the overall process of translation and localisation projects.

(see also guidelines for TM courses, section 3)

• Principles of PM will be introduced in the middle or towards the end of this course, once the students are comfortable using at least one TM application and one terminology management tool.
• The teacher has to allocate some time during the CAT classes for a presentation on PM and the roles and responsibilities of everybody involved in a translation project – project managers, translators, terminologists, revisers, testers, etc.
• The use of dedicated PM software is advisable, but, if this is not possible,  MS Excel  can be used.
• If raw materials are not available, the eCoLoRe training kits can be used.

As students should be familiar by now with more than one TM tool, teams may be created according to the number of tools available. Each team will be provided with a set of source materials which they will have to translate and manage for a given period of time. The working methodology used can differ according to the tool used.

Each group will have at least one project manager, terminologists, translators and revisers. Depending on the type of source files, testers, DTP specialists, and other types of suppliers can be added.

Each group will be asked to design a workflow that successfully uses the functionalities offered by the particular CAT tool they are assigned. There will be as many groups as available TM tools.

For example, they should explore functionalities such as the possibilities to create bundle projects (with all the target languages, TMs attached, etc.) or the possibility of exporting the translated product in a more general format (such as  .doc  or  .txt) to be revised by someone not using a TM. They should show their ability to make the most of those functionalities and also be flexible and creative.

Each team member will have specific responsibilities:

• Project managers: one student or group of students will be responsible for preparing the project – analysing the files, creating a quote, planning and tracking. Students in charge of project management will use a tool to monitor all stages of the localisation workflow in the course.
  • Decide, with the other students in the group, on the functionalities of the TM and terminology application and the best scenario to put those in practice. How are they going to use the tool?
  • Analyse previous resources, such as translation memories, translations that will have to be aligned, terminological databases, etc.
  • Creating the project and attaching relevant TMs and termbases, if this scenario is possible.
  • Plan, monitor and deliver the project on time.
  • Updating and merging all TMs and terminology databases.
• Terminologists:will be responsible for terminology search (mono and bilingual) and creating and updating termbases.
• Translators:will have to translate the new project created by the project manager, deliver the translated software, TM and terminology (export from termbase provided by the terminologists). They will also have to fix any technical problems that occur during the translation as they should, by now, have a very good knowledge of handling different file types.
• Revisers:will be responsible for revising and correcting translations and giving translators feedback on their work.
• Client: the teacher will play the role of the client. He/she will have to review students' work, mark corrections, and give students their work back for updating.

Throughout the project, all members of the teams should communicate and exchange ideas. According to the client's corrections, each student or group of students – will then have to update his/her work (e.g. translation, translation memory or terminology database, depending on the assigned roles).

In groups, students can deliver short presentations presenting the project from different perspectives (translators, terminologists, project managers and revisers). These presentations can be followed by class discussions.

Moreover, they will be able to compare and contrast the different scenarios used by the groups and share in-depth knowledge of the tools used. If only one CAT tool is available, the same scenario can be used, except that all students will use the functionalities of the same tool.

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