For our Localization Project Management class, we were tasked with setting up a Localization Project Management office. We had to set up a workflow in Trello, a central reference hub in DokuWiki, and templates for all the forms a LPM would need, such as a purchase order.
The key takeaway from the process is a variation on Murphy’s Law: In project management, anything that can go wrong, will, so you better have accountability built into every single step and have contingency plans for your contingency plans. You cannot assume that everyone who is involved the project will know exactly what their role is and what they are supposed to do, and that they will execute it the way it is supposed to be executed. You have to have every step planned out with clear, concise directions, and a way for people to keep track of what they have completed.
For us, Trello served that purpose. Within our workflow, we had every step in the project management process for a localization project broken down, from Submission to Post-Production.
We developed our checklists as we worked on our demo project, which was the FAQ of a cosmetic brand’s website. Getting that week’s Trello card done at the beginning of the week was always a priority for our team, because we could then utilize it as the week went on to see how much more was left to do. Our team did an excellent job of quickly settling into a groove, diving tasks accordingly, communicating (via our Slack channel), and holding ourselves and each other accountable for getting everything in our by our due dates.
While Trello contained our workflow, our DokuWiki held all of our reference materials. We created the templates and reference files that project managers need to refer to, from all of the information on our client and current job to the metrics and rates we use to our forms such as Purchase Orders and Work Orders.
As a PM, it is vital to have this information easy for you and your team to access and reference. Having it complete and well organized is important, so you are not wasting valuable time searching for files or trying to fill in information that you cannot find.
As I said above, however, even with the best organization and preparation, you run into hiccups. In our case, we were not working with real translators (although we learned how we would find said translators, if hiring the best translators around were in our budget for our class project!); instead, we worked with Memsource and its Machine Translation feature. When we wrote our Style Guide, we did not write in mind with the fact that we would be working with Machine Translation, and that we would be limited stylistically by what Machine Translation can do. I was in charge of German, a language I do not know. This gave me the chance to experience what it was like to work on a localization project where I did not speak the language I was editing and proofreading, but it was frustrating that I could understand just enough to know that our project did not conform to our Style Guide. Our project was not a good candidate for MT, since it had a very specific voice, but I had to make do with the constraints of the project–something I am sure happens in real-life project management situations all the time!
Overall, through setting up a LPM office, I learned the process of breaking down a large project into steps and making sure that every last detail was accounted for and nothing fell through the cracks at any stage of the project. I also was able to experience this working on a multinational team that coalesced and fell into a good working pattern quickly. I am grateful to my teammates for working hard alongside me throughout the semester so that we were consistently able to turn in our work, complete and on time, every week.