Translation Quality Assessment: Standards and Practical QA

Why formal QA matters

Without defined quality dimensions, "good translation" is subjective. Procurement and legal teams need measurable criteria for RFPs, SLAs and vendor scorecards.

Common frameworks

ISO 17100 defines process requirements. MQM (Multidimensional Quality Metrics) provides error categories—accuracy, terminology, style, locale convention, design—weighted by content type.

Practical steps

• Define severity (critical / major / minor) per project risk
• Sample by volume and content criticality
• Use bilingual reviewers with domain knowledge
• Track error trends to improve glossaries and linguist pools

Pilot projects

Run scored pilot translations before awarding large programs. Compare vendors on the same source files and rubric.