How many of you agree that feasibility analysis is an integral part of localization and needs to be included before working on any of the localization assignments? While most of you may choose to agree or disagree according to your own convenience however, as a matter of fact, having a feasibility study conducted right before taking on an assignment is fruitful in more than one ways for the team in delivering on-time and accurate results.
Before we proceed further, answer this. What exactly is feasibility analysis? For your reference, let us decode it here. Feasibility analysis or feasibility study is no rocket science. It is defined as the process of assessment of the practicality of a proposed project. The aim of feasibility study is to look into the objectivity of a new project in terms of monetary compensation, delivery deadlines, challenges and resources available. In short, this whole thing is about gauging through the strengths and weaknesses of the business proposal and taking a viable decision basis various factors including threats and opportunities. Feasibility study helps understand the success rate of the project and its impact on the credibility of your own organization.
Having said that, we all are aware that content plays a key role in localization. Do you know content complexity issues dampen the spirit of localization team? Are you aware about content challenges? Well, content is indeed the crucial part of localization and more often than not localization experts face hurdles in translating content. The first major challenge is imposed by the local culture. Beyond doubt, all content has to be translated keeping the local language, culture, flair and flavor in mind. As a team member you have to be careful about words, phrases, graphics, gestures etc to ensure that your translation makes sense to the locals in terms of meaning and sentiments. This is important to gain the confidence of the people of an unknown territory to be able to market your product/service and penetrate deeper to create a stronghold against local players.
Another point, which holds importance here is translation productivity. Localization sure is an extensive task and the team has to justify the work done against the compensation received. Hence, it is always a point of worry for localization experts to do justice to the productivity against tasks allotted.
Do you know it takes immense perseverance to battle ones internal conflicts and external challenges to churn out results within the frameworks of the pre-set expectations? Quite sure, you do! Another hurdle in translation is created when translators are not well versed with a certain language, which consumes lot more time in researching about that language and local culture.
One more factor that downplays on the morale of the localization team is budgetary and deadline estimates. Does the thought ever cross your mind, would the allotted budgets be enough to suffice the resources needed for this particular task? Has the thought of meeting specific time lines ever bothered your peace of mind? If you are a localization expert, we are confident in saying that you may have, at some point, encountered such situations. In the first place it is really difficult to chalk out a budget plan with sheer confidence. Localization is a relatively difficult task and involves various unprecedented phases that are tough to underline right at the beginning. At the same time the team has to consider resources and other factors to arrive at deadline conclusions. Delivering the results on time is a huge challenge and if you are unfit to meet your own words, it hampers your goodwill in the market.
All these factors play a vital role during feasibility analysis and hence it’s importance in localization is justifiable! It helps consume less time and resources and churn out better results within the given time deadlines.