What is Terminology Management?

Terminology management is the process of developing and maintaining glossaries of core product-specific terminology, as well as technical and/or potentially ambiguous terms. These glossaries are used by your project's terminologist to ensure that the proper equivalent is chosen and used for each English term.

Glossaries are used in conjunction with style guides, i.e., lists of rules to be followed by translators, editors and proofreaders. Style guides provide for standardized punctuation, capitalization, spelling, diacritics (accent marks), abbreviations, nontranslatable terms, and overall tone in the localized materials.

Together, glossaries and style guides ensure that everyone in the project is on the same page.


Why spend time and money on terminology management?

Terminology management does entail a modest increase in project setup time and costs. However, the time savings and quality improvements enabled by terminology management make the investment more than worthwhile. Managed terminology enhances translation and localization projects by facilitating:

• Increased efficiency: everyone on the project team uses the same resource materials, eliminating the need for costly and time-consuming communications
• Increased quality: consistent terminology across versions and languages translates into consistent international branding and quality
• Enhanced usability: consistent format of abbreviations, date/time, sizes and measurements translates into products that are better suited to the targeted foreign locale
• Reduced time to market: increased efficiency and quality translates into fewer QA iterations and shorter time to market
• Lower costs: the efficiencies realized thanks to terminology management more than offset the initial outlay; this is especially true with regard to upgrades and product updates, where translation reusability plays a critical role in cost containment

Simply stated, terminology management is not a cost—it is a wise investment.


What happens if I don't manage my terminology?

Although not using terminology management will result in modest short-term savings, the long-term costs of not using it are potentially far larger. As noted above, quality can not be inspected into a product, and without robust terminology management processes, strong consistency is more difficult to achieve.

Do not underestimate the importance of consistency in your localized products: post-translation changes can be very costly, especially if they entail production costs for layout, desktop publishing or printing, or engineering time to rebuild compiled components. For instance, the January, 2003 decision by Microsoft to change the name of its flagship server product from "Windows .NET Server 2003" to "Windows Server 2003" cost the company over half a million dollars. That may be an extreme example, but you get the point!

When all is said and done, every project is a tug of war between three competing objectives: cost, quality, and time. Ultimately, the decision about whether or not to manage terminology must be determined by your specific situation and priorities.