The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2024 - 20

Some Fundamentals of
Project
Implementing
effective strategies
can help project
managers achieve
a positive domino
effect within their
organizations.
By Alaina Brantner
Management
M
y professional
experience as a
project manager
includes positions at three
translation firms of varying
organizational maturity. In
those positions, not only
have I managed projects of
varying complexity in over
60 languages but also had
the opportunity to model my
work as a project manager
based on the strategies of
some amazing professionals.
I would like to share a few
of the fundamental skills
and practices I've seen
implemented consistently
by the successful project
managers with whom I've
had the pleasure to work.
Knowing Your Partners
While collaborating with
colleagues from around the
globe is one very exciting
and rewarding component of
the job, the need to know as
much as possible about one's
partners is compounded by a
work environment in which
collaboration takes place
almost exclusively online.
For example, if you discover
20 The ATA Chronicle | March/April 2024
that the translator in Japan is
unable to work with the file
you sent, you'll likely lose
an entire working day (due
to time zone differences)
coordinating to get them
the correct file format. In an
industry where turnarounds
of yesterday can be the norm,
proactively establishing
project parameters around
knowledge of a translator's
software programs,
capacity, location, etc.,
is one way to ensure smooth
project launches.
Overall, the information that
experienced project managers
endeavor to know about their
translators includes:
y Location (time zone)
and contact details (i.e.,
landline, cell, Zoom,
WhatsApp, or other
messenger IDs-the more
the better).
y Operating systems and
computer-assisted
translation (CAT) tools.
y Specializations, degrees,
and certifications.
y Other commitments
and capacity.
y General knowledge of
the translator's strengths
and weaknesses.
In addition to knowing
this information about
each of the translators with
whom they work, as they
become more experienced,
project managers also
become increasingly
aware of factors affecting
the language pairs with
which they regularly work
as a whole. Such factors
include things like periods
in which availability in
certain language pairs will
be greatly diminished due to
vacation trends and national
holidays, the cost of living
in target markets and its
impact on language costs,
and degree equivalencies
between target and source
markets. Building this
kind of working knowledge
regarding individuals and
cultures is an ongoing
process. This is why project
managers develop and rely
on a network of colleagues
and a repository of resources
to which they can turn for all
sorts of on-the-fly answers
to language questions.
Since project management
is largely about big-picture
facilitation, project managers
rely on these individuals at
each stage of the translation
process for micro-level
feedback on performance,
processes, and potential
improvements. For example,
as a project manager, I look
to translators for proactive
feedback on localization
issues and problems that
have popped up during
file preparation, such
as character or symbol
corruption and other issues.
I rely on internal desktop
publishing specialists for
information on compatibility
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The ATA Chronicle - March/April 2024

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