Quality standards in translation

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Under quality standards in the translation is understood that it is also in Linguistics is a minimum level of quality. This has to be achieved in order to pass something or to be admitted. The quality standards serve as an orientation in matters of quality management and serve the translator as an ethical as well as a legal obligation towards his client.

DIN EN 15038: 2006

The DIN EN 15038 standard was adopted by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) on April 13, 2006 and officially announced in May 2006. The standardization institutes of 30 member countries are required to adopt this standard. Accordingly, this standard replaces the previous German standard DIN 2345, which was withdrawn by the German Institute for Standardization on December 31, 2006. The standard includes the following points:

scope of application

EN 15038 defines requirements for translation service providers (human and technical resources), quality and project management, contractual framework conditions and procedures for providing the service.

Terms

Definitions of terms that are necessary for the translation service.

basic requirements

  • Human resources: The translation service provider must ensure that the person selected for the translation service has the necessary qualifications.
  • Professional competence of translators: A translator must demonstrate translation competence, linguistic and textual competence in the source and target language, research competence, information acquisition and processing, cultural competence and technical competence. The prerequisites for qualifying as a translator are that the person must have at least a university degree, comparable translation training or five years of professional translation experience.
  • Technical resources: The translation service provider must ensure the necessary technical facilities, such as for the storage, provision, archiving and disposal of documents and data, hardware and software as well as access to the necessary information sources and media.
  • Quality management system: The translation service provider must have a documented quality management system. This includes the objective, a procedure for monitoring the quality and, if necessary, corrective measures after delivery as well as a procedure for handling all information and documents provided by the customer.
  • Project management: A project manager monitors the implementation of the project in accordance with the translation service provider's procedures and the agreement with the customer.

Relationship between the customer and the translation service provider

  • General: There must be documented procedures for analyzing the project, the offer and the contract.
  • Inquiry processing and feasibility: The translation service provider checks the customer's inquiries with regard to the requirements, i.e. whether all the necessary human and technical resources are available.
  • Offer: The offer must contain at least information about price and delivery conditions and is submitted to the customer by the translation service provider.
  • Agreement between the customer and the translation service provider: The agreement contains commercial conditions and service specifications as well as information on copyright, liability, confidentiality agreements, settlement of legal disputes and quality assurance
  • Dealing with project-related information from the customer: The translation service provider endeavors to provide further information on the project and to clarify ambiguous passages in the source text.
  • Project completion: There are documented processes for approval and archiving, as well as for the traceability of the project process and for evaluating customer satisfaction.

Work processes for the provision of translation services

  • General: The minimum archiving period agreed between the translation service provider and the customer must be observed.
  • Management of translation projects: There must be processes in place that regulate the handling, customer contact and quality assurance. This includes, for example, the monitoring of the preparation process, the selection of translators and proofreaders, precise instructions, the monitoring of the consistency within the translation and the process schedule, sufficient communication and the reaching of the release for the delivery.
  • Preparation: The preparation includes all administrative, technical and linguistic aspects of the special requirements. The administrative aspects include project registration and project assignment. The technical aspects include the technical resources and the translation preparation. The linguistic aspects include the source text analysis, terminology work and style guidelines.
  • Translation process: the translation must comply with the rules of the target language and the translation order. Attention is paid to terminology, grammar, lexicons, style, locale, formatting and target group as well as the purpose of the translation. The first translation has to be checked by the translator, another proofreader will proofread the second time. Its corrective measures must be observed and incorporated. If a technical check is planned, the text is checked again to ensure that the translation is fit for purpose. In some cases, a flag correction is necessary before approval. Approval takes place when the service meets the requirements.

Value-added services

Value-added services are services that are provided by the translation service provider in addition to the translation service. If this is the case, the translation service provider must ensure that the same level of quality as described in this standard is provided. In Germany, translation service providers who undertake to work according to this standard can register with the certification company DIN CERTO and thus use the DIN-tested mark. This symbol can in turn be revoked in the event of verifiable violations of the norm.

In order to check whether the requirements are being followed up, a translator can obtain certification from a certification company (for example the Language Industry Certification System (LICS)).

Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators (BDÜ)

Furthermore, the Federal Association of Interpreters and Translators has existed in Germany since 1955 with 7500 members, which make up around 80% of all organized translators and interpreters in Germany. As a competent partner to business, science, politics, justice and society, it supports the interests of its member associations and individual members. He stands for high quality standards and pays attention to compliance with professional and ethical standards of vocational training. In addition, the BDÜ is committed to public awareness and recognition of the work of translators and interpreters. The high quality standards are maintained through continuous training, communication between member associations and individual members, and cooperation with partner associations. The main advantage of the members is that they are represented in the BDÜ's internet database and can thus be searched for by potential customers. Before being accepted into the BDÜ, every translator or interpreter is checked for compliance with certain professional requirements (e.g. relevant training) and only accepted if these are met.

CGSB 131.10-2008

The Canadian translation standard is based on CAN / CGSB-131.10-2008 and was developed by the Canadian General Standards Board (Canadian standards body) and approved by the Standards Council of Canada. This standard is a modification of the European standard EN 15038: 2006. It combines the stipulations of the European standard with both linguistic and content adjustments that are intended to reflect the Canadian perspective.

In Canada more and more translation companies are getting certified, for example by the AILIA (Language Industry Association of Canada). This certificate is based on the CGSB-131.10-2008 and has meanwhile become almost indispensable in the translation industry. AILIA checks the quality of the translators to ensure a high level of professionalism among the applicants. Since this shows the potential customers in a transparent way that the standardized process is being followed, the certified companies can advertise their admission to AILIA both inside and outside Canada.

ASTM F2575-06

The American translation standard developed in 2006 is the ASTM F2575-06 Standard Guide for Quality Assurance in Translation. It serves as a kind of guideline for customers and everyone involved in the translation process, but does not contain any specific criteria for the translation or its quality. In the USA there is no national standard according to which translation companies can be certified.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quality standard , accessed on May 31, 2016.
  2. ↑ DIN: EN 15038: 2006 . The European quality standard DIN: EN 15038: 2006 , accessed on May 31, 2016.
  3. ↑ Translation services, service requirements; German version EN 15038: 2006, pages 5-12 , accessed on December 20, 2016
  4. ↑ Standard for translation members ( Memento of the original from June 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Website of the Federal Association for Interpreters and Translators , accessed on May 31, 2016 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bdue.de
  5. ↑ LIC . Language Industry Certification System Web site.Retrieved May 31, 2016
  6. ↑ BDÜ . Website of the Federal Association for Interpreters and Translators , accessed on December 20, 2016
  7. ↑ CGSB 131.10-2008 , accessed on May 28, 2016.
  8. ↑ Certification for CAN / CGSB-131.10-2008 . Language Industry Association of Canada website , Retrieved May 28, 2016
  9. ↑ ASTM F2575-06 , Retrieved May 28, 2016