Mirela
A poor translation can cost you customers. Translation quality assurance is the set of checks that makes sure a translation is accurate, consistent and reads well for its audience before it’s published. It combines people (translators, editors, reviewers) with tools (glossaries, translation memory, automated checks) at each stage of the process. Without it, errors reach your customers, and fixing them after release costs more than catching them early.
What is translation quality assurance?
Translation quality assurance, or TQA, is a set of processes that ensures a translated piece of text is accurate, consistent, and reads well for the target audience. Basically, a quality check for translations. The specifics can vary depending on the project and the resources available, but here’s a breakdown of some common TQA phases:
- Pre-translation planning, where you define project scope, purpose, and target audience, as well as develop a glossary and style guide for consistency.
- Translator selection, which involves choosing qualified translators with relevant expertise.
- Translation process, where the translator produces the initial draft.
- Editing, the process of linguistic review for grammar, syntax, and spelling.
- Proofreading, meaning the text is proofread for typos, formatting, and minor inconsistencies.
- Quality Assurance checks, the use of automated tools to detect inconsistencies and errors. Manual checks are used for context and cultural nuances.
- Client review, where the client reviews and provides feedback.
- Final verification, where you’d conduct a final review to ensure all changes are correct.
- Post-project evaluation, which means assessing translator and team performance and gathering feedback for process improvement.
As you can see, this is a complex process that requires the use of both technology and qualified linguists.
TQA, LQA and QA testing: What’s the difference?
| Translation quality assurance (TQA) | Linguistic quality assurance (LQA) | Localization QA testing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Focus | The quality of the translated text | The text in context: cultural fit, tone, terminology | The localized product: layout, functionality, formats |
| Who | Translators, editors, reviewers | Native-speaker reviewers | QA testers, developers |
| When | During and after translation | Before release, on the real content | Before release, in the app or on the website |
In practice, the three overlap. Read more about linguistic QA and localization testing.
Why you should implement TQA
A poor translation can be embarrassing and even damaging for your brand. It can also confuse your audience. It costs more (and it’s more time-consuming) to fix bad translations after publication than catching them earlier.
If you add translation quality assurance to your workflow, you catch mistakes upfront. You’ll save money and resources in the long run. Your message stays clear and culturally appropriate, and in some industries you avoid the legal risks that come with inaccurate translations.
Best practices for TQA
To establish a robust TQA process, learn from these best practices:
Go into it well prepared
Before anything else, you need to set clear benchmarks for what constitutes a high-quality translation for your project. We’re talking accuracy, fluency, tone, and target audience appropriateness. All parties involved (translators, editors, reviewers) need to know about these criteria.
You should make sure the source text is clear, error-free, and formatted well to avoid confusion during translation. Choose experienced translators who specialize in the subject matter and target language.
Streamline the workflow
Translation memory (TM) will help you maintain consistency across all your projects, while terminology management tools keep translations consistent with your style guide and glossary. Afterwards, you can use automated QA tools to catch basic errors efficiently. Make sure to establish clear processes for each stage of TQA, from pre-translation checks to final review.
Maintain good communication
Give your translators all necessary resources: style guides, glossaries, and reference materials. They should be given clear instructions and should know about project expectations. Establish feedback loops throughout the process and encourage your translators to ask questions whenever in doubt.
Improve continuously
This is where you need to take a step back and identify areas for improvement. Look at your past projects to identify recurring errors and adjust your workflows accordingly. Keep up-to-date with the latest TQA practices and technologies. New tools, such as automatic quality scores, can make reviews much more efficient.
How to automate translation quality checks
Some QA work is repetitive and can run automatically on every translation:
- Rule-based checks flag missing translations, broken placeholders and HTML tags, inconsistent terminology, extra spaces or punctuation differences.
- Quality scores estimate how good each translation is, so reviewers start with the weakest strings.
- Automated fixes propose a corrected version for low-scoring translations, which a reviewer then accepts or edits.
Automation doesn’t replace review: it decides where human attention goes.
Using POEditor in your TQA and LQA processes
Translation management system POEditor has several features that can aid in TQA throughout your localization projects. Firstly, it’s a central hub for managing all your translation projects. It simplifies collaboration and communication between translators, editors, and reviewers, as everyone can access the latest versions and track changes efficiently.
The built-in QA checks can automatically identify potential errors during translation. These checks can flag missing translations, typos, formatting inconsistencies, and even duplicate content. This help you catch basic mistakes early on, saving time and resources during the editing process.
We also have a Translation Quality Evaluation feature, which is based on the MQM framework. It identifies issues by category and severity, each translation receiving a score out of 100. The problems found can be resolved with the Fix with AI feature, which generates a revised translation.
POEditor also uses translation memory to store previously translated segments. When working on similar projects, the system can suggest previously approved translations, ensuring consistency across your content. You can also create and manage glossaries for consistent use of terminology throughout your projects.
By using its automation features along with human expertise, POEditor can become a valuable tool for streamlining your TQA and LQA processes.
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Subscribe to the POEditor platform today!Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between TQA and LQA?
TQA checks the quality of the translated text. LQA checks the text in context, including cultural fit and tone, usually on the real product.
What are the steps of translation quality assurance?
Planning, translation, editing, proofreading, automated QA checks, client review and final verification, followed by an evaluation of the project.
Can translation quality assurance be automated?
Partly. Automated checks and quality scores catch common errors and show reviewers where to look, but human review is still needed for meaning, tone and cultural fit.
How do you measure translation quality?
With error-based scoring: reviewers or tools classify errors by type (accuracy, fluency, terminology, style) and severity, often using the MQM framework, and turn them into a score. Automated quality estimation gives a similar score for each translation. Track it over time, together with the issues found after release.
What is MQM?
MQM (Multidimensional Quality Metrics) is a framework for classifying translation errors by type and severity, often used to score translation quality.