Being your own Project Manager. Pt 1

Earlier this month, I started a workshop on Project Management at Penn State University.  I was very happy about this opportunity because I still struggle with managing effectively my different translation projects.  I must admit that for many years, my idea to manage projects went something like this:

-  Write down the name of project #1

- Make a mental note of the deadline

- Freak out and pull and all-nighter when you have less than 48 hours to deliver your project.

- Deliver it and pray you don’t get called to clarify or change anything.

- Write down the name of project #2...

I could not continue with that type of “management” if I wanted to deliver a quality job and avoid a nervous breakdown. While I am much more organized now than when I started as a translator, I feel the insights gained in my Project Management workshop have given me new perspectives on how to get my work done more effectively. This workshop is not finished yet, but I want to share some of the lessons I have learned so far:

1.  Less is More

Many times, one has the tendency to overcommit because the thought that we might be rejecting a job just doesn’t feel right. However, it is far more damaging to fail to deliver a translation project on the agreed deadline because of overcommitment. In order to avoid this kind of situation, it is crucial for translators to have data on two things:

-  Average amount of words translated per day

- Average amount of time spent in research (terminology management/ reading important additional documents for the translation of a text)

Everyone is different and, more importantly, not all texts bear the same amount of complexity.  Don’t just go with the idea that “ most professional translators translate 2000 words per day”. Find out how many words you can translate in an hour. Try to translate general and specialized texts.  Also, register the amount of time that completing a translation job takes you. This will prove very helpful when you have to quote on the estimated date of delivery of a project. You can find a more extensive post on the number of words translated per day in this great  blog

2. Be Proactive

Many translation projects end up taking more time, being redone or completely cancelled due to ineffective communication. Most of the time, we only talk to our clients when we encounter a problem. In other words, our approach to projects is a reactive approach instead of a proactive one.

When working with a LSP, a project manager will answer all the questions we may have, but when we work with a direct client, we need to be more proactive in our conversations with them. We cannot expect clients to merely hand us the document to be translated.  We need to make our client understand that we are going to ask a lot of questions about the product/service, about the goals of the company, and the type of consumers they want to reach. In other words, we need to tell our clients that the more informed we are about a project, the better we can localize it.

Both my website and email signature include a link to ATA’s brochure “Translation: Getting it Right”.  This is a great tool for letting clients know that “having an inquisitive translator can only mean good news.” (p. 18)

I will be posting soon on more lessons learned during the workshop.

Have a great weekend and don’t be shy to comment :)