8 Ways a Translation Project Manager Makes Your Project More Productive

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Recently updated on February 21st, 2024 at 08:38 pm

Are you looking for a specialized translation project manager to run your internationalization project? Having a qualified translation project manager is essential to any translation and localization project. The Project Manager (or PM) does much to facilitate multilingual language projects and can save you a lot of time, stress, and resources by ensuring your Chinese translation and localization projects run smoothly.

What Is a Translation Project Manager?

A translation project manager is a person that handles and manages the translation team which has been given a translation project. Translation project managers oversee translation processes from start to finish from helping the client understand what they need, to assigning and managing a global team of translation vendors, to safely delivering a high-quality translation product.

Translation Project Manager
Translation Project Manager

What Are the Responsibilities of a Translation Project Manager?

Essentially, project management in translation and localization projects calls for understanding requirements, creating a plan, and coordinating resources to deliver a polished project successfully. A Project Manager has several tasks they must perform.

These tasks include:

# Understands Client’s Preferences and Specific Requirements

A good project manager always takes time to understand the client’s requirements, writing style, and communication strategy. A project manager is the client’s representative to the translation or localization team, ensuring that all the requirements are adhered to throughout the project.

# Assembles the Translation or Localization Team

A translation project manager is responsible for assembling the translation or localization team with skills that are appropriate to the subject matter and style of the source documents. If you have a large project in multiple languages across various industries, trying to manage these on your own can be complex at best and a nightmare at worst.

# Manages the Translation Process and Tools

At the beginning of your project, a translation project manager customizes the process workflow based on the client’s specific needs. He/she will also prepare and monitor quality assurance checklists to make sure any potential challenges will be remembered and addressed. Furthermore, the project manager provides translators with glossaries and translation memory that is specific to the translation project.

# Resolves Differences in the Translation Team

A typical translation project involves a minimum of three people, a translator, an editor, and a proofreader. If any conflict arises among them, it’s the project manager’s responsibility to resolve these differences to minimize the chances of an error or omission in language or information. The project manager also handles any possible conflict of opinion between the translation team and the client.

# Keeps Timelines and Schedules on Track

A highly skilled translation project manager makes sure that the project is completed on time. The capacity of a translation team might change according to the demand, and a project manager might scale up the team as necessary to meet the urgent demands and keep your project on schedule. The translation tasks are systematically distributed without overlapping each other tasks and without getting failed.

# Ensures Quality of the Project

Ultimately, a good project manager is responsible for the quality of the project delivered to the client. He/she understands the project and coordinates quality reviews to achieve the highest-quality result. A great project manager coordinates proofreading and review time and again until he/she is confident that the client will be pleased with the results.

# Wraps up the Project

At the end of the translation or localization project, the translation project manager discusses all the elements of the project and asks clients to give feedback. Apart from the client, a good project manager will document each member of the translation team’s project history to evaluate it and make improvements for future projects.

# Builds Relationships

Most importantly, a highly-skilled translation project manager builds strong relationships with clients. Making clients happy is the heartbeat that keeps some translation project managers going through fast-paced, sometimes stressful days.

Final Thoughts

As you can see a translation project manager is vital to the success of any translation or localization project. You may be able to complete a multilingual project without a project manager, but the stress and uncertainty alone, make it not worth the effort.

Are you worried about whether you will get state-of-the-art translation services on time or not? Cost, quality, and time are the things that haunt you. However, if you are giving a translation project to the Chinese translation company that assigns a translation project manager to each project, then you don’t need to worry. You will get professional translation services at a fast turnaround time and economical rates without taking too much stress.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Translation Project?

A translation project is a project that involves all aspects of translating.

What Does a Translation Project Manager Do?

The translation project manager coordinates and manages the delivery of translation projects to clients, and is responsible for project status, and client relationships as well as ensuring quality and services meet expectations.

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