Project Management in the Language Industry: Lecture 2

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Project Management in the Language Industry
Lecture 2

• Dr. Gregory M. Shreve
• Kent State University
• Institute for Applied Linguistics

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Project Management

• application of specific knowledge, skills tools
  and techniques (KSTT) to meet the clients needs
  and expectations for a specific project.
• generic project management KSTT is viable across
  applications
• an application will change the specific
  character of project management

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Projects and Applications

• This implies that there are two kinds of KSTT
  application oriented and PM-oriented. The
  Language Industry Project Manager needs to
  understand both

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PM
Application Specific KSTT

Language Industry
Generic KSTT
Applications
PM in Language Industry
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Language Industry
corporate
agency in-house
Individual free-lance
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Evolution Language Industry

• The impetus of economic forces has changed the
  structure of the profession, shifting it from a
  paradigm based on the individual professional, to
  one based on a cottage industry model, e.g.,
  groups of professionals and small agencies and
  in-house operations united in professional
  associations, and finally to a full-fledged
  service industrial sector as the millennium
  closes.

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• We are now seeing, in the growth of large
  language-service-providing corporations, the
  evolution of the industry away from smaller
  agencies and free-lance operations dependent
  primarily on free-lance professional translators
  and toward multi-service, multi-national
  operations. This radical shift has changed the
  nature of who works in the language industry, how
  they are trained and how they identify
  themselves.

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Evolutionary Forces
volume
differentiation textual form
diversification of medium
digitization
expansion of domains
time
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Organizational Trends
division of labor / specialization
process / tool R D
corporate structure (mgmt. R D)
fast growth ? cash stream venture capitalization
professionalized employee base
aftermarket
time
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LI Structure Stakeholder Segments
providers
tool-makers
tool-makers
tool-makers
producers
trainers
facilitators
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The Language Industry Pyramid
facilitators
trainers
toolmakers
providers
producers
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Producers

• companies
• government
• public
• educational
• research

linguistic raw material
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printed documents
electronic documents
software
databases
web documents
interfaces
multimedia
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linguistic raw material
printed documents
providers
electronic documents
input
software
databases
web documents
interfaces
multimedia
output
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Providers
language corporations translation
agencies localization firms
outputs
returned
retained
producers
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returned
retained
translated printed documents
terminologies / glossaries
translated electronic documents
machine dictionaries
localized software
translation memory
multilingual databases
source target corpora
localized web documents
localized interfaces
localized multimedia
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linguistic raw material
Language Project
returned
retained
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process / tool R D
aftermarket
tool-makers
tool-makers
facilitators
tool-makers
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division of labor / specialization
professionalized employee base
degree programs certification accreditation contin
uing education workshops
process / tool R D
trainers
(mgmt. R D)
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Toolmakers

• terminology managers
• authoring systems
• translation memory
• multilingual DTP
• code inspectors
• localization tools
• taggers / tag editors
• LI PM software

PM Application Tools
tool-makers
tool-makers
tool-makers
Productivity Enhancement Control
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Facilitators

• ISO
• DIN
• AFNOR
• ANSI
• ASTM
• LISA

• tool-related standards

PM Application Standards / Guidelines

• process standards

facilitators
tool-makers
Productivity Enhancement Control
tool-makers
reduce duplication increase exchange cut costs
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Trainers

• executives
• project managers
• editors / revisors
• translators
• localizers
• cultural assessors
• terminologists
• language app engineers
• multilingual DTP
• multilingual IT
• trainers (new)

requisite skill sets
Increasing specialization
trainers
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toolmakers
trainers
producer
Language Project
provider
facilitators
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Problems in LI

• rate of change in the producer segment relative
  to our ability as an industry (provider segment)
  to keep pace with it, especially given the speed
  at which the twin processes of diversification
  and digitization are occurring
• lack of research / analytic tools to help us
  grasp the nature and the scope of the change in
  the producer industry itself LI has not emerged
  as an object of study in itself (e.g., what this
  course is trying to do)
• evolution of management, project, application
  processes in flux due to rapid growth of
  corporate structures / disciplines
• lack of consensus ( standardization) on nature
  and character of processes

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Problems in LI

• problem of recruitment the industry is trying
  to recruit candidates from a pool that is much
  too small the size of the population of
  qualified candidates seems to lag far behind the
  number available to be hired this problem is
  compounded by the fact that the range of skills
  required of a group of employees may necessitate
  hiring from several different, equally small, if
  not smaller pools.
• problem of retention because the number of new
  recruits is too small, or (and this is quite
  likely) they are not equipped with the right kind
  and level of skill, service providers recruit --
  and maybe this is too polite a word -- personnel
  from one another -- a situation good for the
  recipient, bad for the donor and probably not
  good in the long run for the industry.
• Understanding of required skill sets is
  undeveloped certain skill sets undefined.

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normal recruitment
recruitment demand
supply
trainer recruitment pool
raiding
incumbent recruitment pool
retention
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Some Solutions
PM class
ISO 9000 MARTIF TMX
providers
study
tool-makers
tool-makers
tool-makers
investment
OSCAR
trainers
standards
guidelines
LEIT
facilitators
skill sets?
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Assignment

• Search the Internet for company, institutions,
  organizations
• involved in todays language industry.
• provide name, URL and short description
• classify as to producer, provider, facilitator,
  tool-maker, or trainer
• describe product, service or niche
• prepare in HTML format and includes links to
  URLs
• Due February 17
• We will consolidate class results into a resource
  page for our
• PM web site.