Translation QA (Quality Assurance)
The process of checking translations for errors, consistency, and quality before publication.
Definition
Translation QA encompasses automated and manual checks to ensure translation quality. Automated QA catches technical errors: missing placeholders, inconsistent terminology, formatting issues, length violations, and untranslated strings. Manual QA involves linguistic review for accuracy, fluency, and cultural appropriateness. QA is typically a workflow stage before final approval.
Examples
- →Automated: Missing {placeholder} in translation
- →Automated: 'Login' translated inconsistently across files
- →Automated: Translation exceeds 20-character limit
- →Manual: Cultural appropriateness review for marketing copy
Frequently Asked Questions
What QA checks should I run automatically?
Essential auto-checks: 1) Placeholder consistency 2) Terminology/glossary compliance 3) Character limits 4) Untranslated strings 5) Leading/trailing whitespace 6) Duplicate translations. Most TMS platforms include these.
When do I need manual linguistic review?
Always for: marketing/brand content, legal text, user-facing error messages. Consider skipping for: internal tools, auto-generated content with low visibility. Cost-benefit: machine translation + human review often balances speed and quality.