Industry Guide November 20, 2023 • 11 min read • QA Team
Translation Quality Assessment: Standards and Practical QA
How enterprises evaluate translation quality using MQM-style frameworks, sampling, error taxonomy and scorecards—before and after vendor selection.
#translation quality
#MQM
#LQA
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.