AGILE LOCALIZATION

Quick, agile multilingual delivery of products and services is gradually becoming the norm across numerous industries. The focus in this case shifts from traditional expectations, i.e. translating large volumes within reasonable timeframes to translating small and tiny pieces with an extremely aggressive turnaround, typically between 2-3 and 12-24 hours, often during weekends or holidays.

Logrus IT offers flexible Agile location services.

What is Agile localization, and why is it so important?

Agile localization is a special approach to the localization process based on the principles of flexible project management. It can be used to quickly and efficiently adapt a product or service for an international release. This flexible approach is especially useful for localizing websites and software in the constantly changing and highly competitive digital realm.

The advantages of Agile localization

Flexibility and iteration The localization process can be broken down into a series of short cycles or “iterations.” In any given iteration, specialists focus on a small amount of work and submit proofread fragments one at a time. This makes it possible to react quickly to changes in the source text and adjust the translation as the project moves forward. To maintain consistency, Agile localization assumes that specialists are using and updating terminological glossaries on an ongoing basis.

Communication and collaboration Agile localization entails active communication and collaboration among project participants. Linguists, developers, and clients work together closely, exchanging information, identifying requirements, setting deadlines, and so on.

Ongoing quality monitoring and feedback When using Agile localization, specialists constantly track the quality of the translation and the efficiency of work-related processes. Regular feedback from the client and end users makes it easier to optimize the process and implement feedback immediately.

Automation and integration Agile localization also entails the use of translation managements systems. These systems make it easier to automate routine tasks, increase work efficiency, and facilitate integration with other content-management systems.

A TMS allows the team to:

• engage more people in the project at once
• access the client’s folders, track updates, and automatically import new materials
• monitor file versions and proactively make changes to the translation while it’s still in progress
• track translation quality and changes to glossaries

The primary advantages of Agile localization include faster translation delivery, the ability to make changes and manage requirements more flexibly, active communication among project participants, and high translation quality.

Logrus IT offers several types of agile localization solutions that cover the whole spectrum of potential expectations. In all cases we are talking about providing small or tiny, standalone and relatively urgent (24-hour or less turnaround) translations to clients.

Agile localization with NO preliminary notifications

This approach is used for clients or projects where quick turnarounds are expected, but happen spontaneously, and advance warnings are not available.

Service level suggested:

1. Logrus IT commits to a 12-24 hour turnaround during both weekdays and weekends for translations into all major 36 and some other languages using an online portal, app or tool provided by us. If materials need to be returned in a particular format requested by the client (like Passolo, Trados or other custom format), export/conversion operations can take additional time because they can only be carried out by the PM when all translations into all languages become available.
2. Logrus IT provides the following emergency contacts for its PM and Engineering team: emergency email alias and, in some cases, also a Skype or other messenger account and/or a mobile number for sending urgent localization requests.
3. Emergency aliases/numbers are monitored continuously between 08:00 and 20:00 (GMT+3) during weekdays and at least twice a day during weekends.
4. The list of languages needs to be discussed in advance.
5. Exact turnaround times for most languages depend on the time when the job is placed and the time zone where native speakers are located. There are some natural limitations involved. (For instance, when the job is received late in the evening or during nighttime in some countries involved.)
6. Turnaround time is guaranteed* for volumes under 125 words. 
   *While Logrus IT will make every effort to provide deliverables in a timely manner, in some cases, including Force Majeure, the situation might go beyond our control for some languages/regions. We’ll do everything to notify clients as early as possible in all such cases, which are extremely rare.
7. Deliveries during national holidays (at Logrus IT production sites or in regions where some requested languages are spoken) are not guaranteed.
8. No charge in case no jobs are sent by the client.
9. Surcharges: None for weekday deliveries within the monitored timeframe. A 50-100% surcharge is added for jobs started and/or delivered during weekends.

Agile localization with preliminary notifications

This case is similar to the previous one, but each urgent job is preceded by at least a two-day advance warning.

Service level suggested:

1. Logrus IT commits to a 4-24 hour turnaround during both weekdays and weekends for translations into all major 36 and some other languages using an online portal, app or tool provided by us. If materials need to be returned in a particular format requested by the client (like Passolo, Trados or other custom format), export/conversion operations can take additional time because they can only be carried out by the PM when all translations into all languages become available.
2. Logrus IT provides the following emergency contacts for its PM and Engineering team: emergency email alias and a Skype or other messenger account and/or a mobile number for sending urgent localization requests.
3. Emergency aliases/numbers are monitored continuously between 08:00 and 20:00 (GMT+3) during weekdays and at least four times a day during weekends. Monitoring during extended hours is also possible on request.
4. The list of languages needs to be discussed in advance.
5. Exact turnaround times for most languages depend on the time when the job is placed and the time zone where native speakers are located. There are some natural limitations involved. (For instance, when the job is received late in the evening or during nighttime in some countries involved.)
6. Turnaround time is guaranteed* for volumes under 250 
   *While Logrus IT will make every effort to provide deliverables in a timely manner, in some cases, including Force Majeure, the situation might go beyond our control for some languages/regions. We’ll do everything to notify clients as early as possible in all such cases, which are extremely rare.
7. Deliveries during national holidays can take more time.
8. No charge or minimal charge in case no jobs are sent by the client.
9. Surcharges: None for weekday deliveries within the monitored timeframe. A 50-100% surcharge is added for jobs placed and/or delivered during weekends. Higher surcharges may apply to holiday work.

Agile localization with preliminary notifications and resource reservation (retainer)

In this case the client not only provides a two-day advance warning, but also commits to pay for pre-agreed team standby availability afterhours, during weekends or holidays irrespective of whether any jobs are sent.

Service level suggested:

1. Logrus IT commits to provide resources available in standby mode within the pre-agreed timeframe and hourly limits.
2. Logrus IT commits to a 4-24 hour turnaround during both weekdays and weekends for translations into all major 36 and some other languages using an online portal, app or tool provided by us. If materials need to be returned in a particular format requested by the client (like Passolo, Trados or other custom format), export/conversion operations can take additional time because they can only be carried out by the PM when all translations into all languages become available.
3. Logrus IT provides the following emergency contacts for its PM and Engineering team: emergency email alias, a Skype or other messenger account and a mobile number for sending urgent localization requests.
4. Emergency aliases/numbers are monitored continuously between 08:00 and 20:00 (GMT+3) during weekdays and in accordance with the pre-agreed schedule outside of the “standard” weekday timeframe.
5. The list of languages needs to be discussed in advance.
6. Exact turnaround times for most languages depend on the time when the job is placed and the time zone where native speakers are located. There are some natural limitations involved. (For instance, when the job is received late in the evening or during nighttime in some countries involved.)
7. Turnaround time is guaranteed* for volumes under 750 
   *While Logrus IT will make every effort to provide deliverables in a timely manner, in some cases, including Force Majeure, the situation might go beyond our control for some languages/regions. We’ll do everything to notify clients as early as possible in all such cases, which are extremely rare.
8. Deliveries during national holidays can take more time.
9. Client is charged for resource time booked in advance in all cases. Additional charges apply if actual time spent exceeds pre-agreed time or additional work is required.
10. Surcharges: None for weekday deliveries within the monitored timeframe. A 50-100% surcharge is added for jobs placed and/or delivered during weekends. Higher surcharges may apply to holiday work.

Supply chain

Logrus IT has already established a robust agile multilingual production chain covering more than two dozen languages. This chain includes people and teams all around the globe who have already committed to participate in our agile model. We are actively working on involving more translators and teams to extend the list of languages and further improve performance on agile projects.

Each person or team participating in the program signs a special SLA which is an Appendix to our Master Services Agreement. This SLA includes guaranteed limited availability afterhours, during weekends and holidays and well as a commitment to react to urgent requests within a pre-agreed timeframe and provide services, if required. The SLA also contains emergency contacts (email alias, Skype or other messenger, phone, mobile) and special payment agreements for each supplier.

Logrus IT has not made this appendix mandatory, but we obviously favor more flexible suppliers and individuals, even in cases that do not involve urgent turnarounds.

Process and online collaboration

Logrus IT provides an online, cloud-based platform for translating and editing materials in a simple format that does not require special training and makes it possible for all involved PMs and linguists to complete their tasks with minimal overhead.

Logrus IT PMs are monitoring the status of each project and automatically reassign tasks that were not acknowledged or completed on time based purely on their status.

The client can check on the status at any time or download completed materials immediately when they are ready.

Quality checks

We will perform a full set of quality checks for all agile projects during our normal hours of operation between 08:00 and 20:00 (GMT+3). During afterhours, weekends and holidays the number of checks performed can be limited by those built or integrated into the tools, and strongly depends on the expected turnaround time and urgency. Logrus IT is actively working on extending the number, depth and coverage of instant and self-checks on the translator/editor end within an agile environment.