Continuous Translation

What is continuous translation? Product managers know that one thing that costs money is when there are major interruptions in the product cycle. Similar experiences can be made in the publishing business or any office context, when you have media discontinuity, which the beautiful German word "Medienbruch" describes even more fittingly, meaning content is changed from one format to the other, for whatever purpose, and then needs to be transformed back, costing time and resulting in quality change, content loss or incompatibility issues. Any interruption in a planned or time critical process is costly.

Let us look at the translation process. Irrespective of the type of content that needs to be translated - be it software, literature or audiovisual material - continuity in the process will mean faster results, less slack and lower costs. If you are the head of product, you are interested in keeping all aspects of the production cycle tightly integrated, timed efficiently and working together friction-free. The same goes for translation.

The way we envisage localization (at LingoHub our primary focus is the localization of web or mobile applications), is that the work translators perform on your product, has to be an integral part of the work your developers perform and your marketers carry out upon completion. An infrastructure for hassle-free integration of translation into the software development process will empower your team, create high quality output and just in time delivery that will reach your target audience as planned. To achieve this, we strive for continuous translation. The linguistic component of localization should be seen as essential part of the production of your product, not an outsourced element, or stumbling block.

What we mean by continuous translation is that the process does not stop because you need to send off text to translators and wait for it to come back. Continuous translation means a tight and seamless integration of this process with the rest of the product process.

In more concrete terms: your finished text (or almost finished text) from your product can be translated on LingoHub and then reintegrated (via Github synchronization, API, etc) even while language professionals are translating, or developers putting on finishing touches. Any change on either side should not interrupt the other part's process. On LingoHub, notifications will ensure that new or remaining text will be swiftly translated without anyone having to touch files or code, and what matters is deployment of your product once the targeted locale is fully translated.

How does continuous translation work in practice? Click here to read our CEO Helmut's views on integration of translation within a Git workflow, or have a look at this screenshot guide on setting up Github integration with LingoHub. We pride ourselves in providing you with the tools you need to stay within your preferred frameworks and processes. Overhead is your enemy just as it is ours, to having two-way Github synchronization is just as important as an easy to use online interface for the translators you are working with.