Translation preparation is related to transferring the source text into a form which the translation process can accept or which will facilitate translation.
The more the source text can be designed and created with translation in mind, the less work it will require when passing into translation process (OVUM report).
Metric: Can edit list of terms to be ignored during translation process -- Method: 1) Determine if system has feature through reading documentation. 2) Test the operation of the feature through one or more test cases. -- Measurement: 1) Yes or no: The feature exists. 2) The number successfully marked not-translate words
Metric: Ease of importing data into the system (for an example from word processors, see OVUM report) -- Method: 1) Review system documentation for list of data types accepted by the system, to include file types, code sets, data formats. 2) Import data into the system for each file type, code set and data format advertised. -- Measurement: 1) List of file types, code sets and data formats supported by the system. 2) List of file types, code sets and data formats successfully loaded into the system.
Metric: Input tolerance for typing / conversion and other errors -- Method: Design and execute characteristic error test suites -- Measurement: Percentage of ill-formed inputs successfully handled by the system.
Metric: Can mark terms to not translate -- Method: 1) Review system documentation to see if this is a feature and how it treats these terms. For instance, in Chinese-English, if a Chinese term is marked as do not translate, is it transliterated or rendered in the native font in the output text. 2) Mark words as do not translate and run them through the system -- Measurement: 1) Yes or no: Terms can be marked as do not translate. 2) Description of handling strategies for not translated words.
Metric: Maximum length of input text -- Method: 1) Review system documentation to see if there is a maximium supported input text length. 2) Run documents under and over input text length to determine handling of out of bounds text. -- Measurement: 1) Length (in words or bytes) of largest input text permitted. 2) Description of error handling for texts larger than the maximum length. That is, are they split into separate texts, does the system crash, etc.
Metric: Maximum length of input sentence -- Method: 1) Review system documentation to see if there is a maximum supported input sentence length. 2) Run suite of sentences under and over input length to determine handling of over-length text. -- Measurement: 1) Length (in words or bytes) of largest input sentence permitted. 2) Description of error handling for sentences larger than the maximum length. THat is, are they split into separate texts, does the system crash, etc.
Metric: System vocabulary search -- Method: 1) Review of system architecture to determine if module does a not-found check on words before translation process begins. 2) Review of intermediate system artifacts to see if marking occurs. -- Measurement: 1) Yes or no: Does the system pre-scan document for not-found words? 2) If so, how does the marking occur?
Metric: Time required for pre-processing of a particular test text -- Method: 1) Assemble necessary software modules if not incorporated into system. 2) Enable necessary software modules if incorporated into system. 3) Measure time required for pre-processing stages for one or more test texts. -- Measurement: Amount of additional time required by pre-processing.
This is more a part of the process flow as opposed to the translation process per se.