ISO certification Archives - 1Stop Translations

20 December 2022 Admin NewsISO certification, Machine translation, MTPE

Machine Translation quality assurance

Even though the classic fully human translation, namely the one totally entrusted to professional human translators, still remains the top choice when seeking the highest translation quality, machine translation reviewed by human translators (called MTPE or Machine Translation Post-Editing) is nowadays considered a viable alternative that has the advantage of reducing costs and delivery time to the client.

4 minutes – read

In the past decade, great progress has been made in Machine Translation-related research, especially thanks to neural machine translation engines, which have been created and calibrated in relation to the increase in multilingual content to be translated under tight deadlines and the reduction of related budgets. MTPE is the effective solution to these needs: thanks to human revision, it produces, within certain limits, a good quality translation, quickly and with significant economic benefits.

Machine translation quality assurance – 1Stop Blog

Machine Translation Post-Editing

MTPE is a type of hybrid translation, in which the automatic process is followed by a phase called post-editing, or revision by human translators. But how does this type of translation work? First, the software translates the textual content in bulk; then human translators verify the entire content, improving its accuracy by checking form, syntax, terminology, and adaptation (localization). Through this process, the work of the machine is refined, with the goal of achieving a level of quality that can only be achieved by human intervention: the latter adds nuances that the machine is unable to achieve. In this way, the final output of MTPE will be very close to that of fully human translation.

ISO 18587:2017

For Translation Agencies, MTPE is regulated by the ISO 18587:2017 certification, which defines the necessary requirements for workflow, activities, and skills related to post-editing. Specifically, it provides:

the assurance by language providers of the total correspondence between source and target (translated) text, as well as the full comprehensibility of the output
the complete documentation of all necessary requirements for post-editing projects
a set of specific requirements for the figure of the professional proofreader
the precise identification of the translation output (human or machine)

In addition, ISO 18587 helps improving productivity, selecting the most appropriate resources to be allocated on the post-editing activity, and thus allows the agency to remain competitive, and still provide a quality product, in a market where the demand for machine translation is growing.

What are the benefits of MTPE?

MTPE combines the speed of machine translation with the skilled attention of a professional translator. In addition, the editing activity on the machine-translated text is faster than classical translation because the time required to revise a text is less than the time it takes to translate one from scratch, allowing the overall costs of language localization to be reduced.

Human revision also ensures that the result is:

structurally, terminologically, spelling, and grammatically consistent
error-free and accurate in meaning
clear and understandable to the target audience
improved in terms of cultural sensitivity
in line with industry standards and client guidelines

MTPE combines the speed of machine translation with the skilled attention of a professional translator

Conclusions

In conclusion, MTPE is a type of hybrid translation that can be applied in various sectors, including iGaming, which guarantees an excellent output. This type of translations is highly beneficial for the client since it reduces costs as well as delivery time; however, it is always preferable for the machine work to be accompanied by the review made by a professional translator so that eventual inaccuracies can be polished. To do so, it is of utmost importance to work with companies that follow precise requirements, have high quality standards, and are experienced when MTPE is concerned.

1Stop Translations, an ISO 18587-certified translation company, is the ideal partner to turn to and guarantees the highest quality of the translated text, regardless of volumes, languages and technology used. Our translations meet the highest quality requirements set by international standards, which dictate not only perfect comprehensibility of the text, but also consistency of terminology, lexical, and stylistic consistency.

Did you like the article? Contact us to let us know what you thought.

Do you need help to get started or to further your existing link building strategy? Contact us for a free advice or request a video call with our experts.

Need a quote? Click here

ISO 9001:2015 – Quality management systems

ISO 9001:2015 is the international standard for Quality Management Systems (QMS), published by the ISO, that determines the standards for the creation, implementation, and management of a QMS for any company, regardless of its size or sector of expertise. As an international standard, the certification is recognized as the basis for creating a system that ensures customer satisfaction and improvement in any company and, therefore, many companies consider it as a minimum requirement when choosing their suppliers.

The ISO 9001 consists of ten sections; the first three are introductory, while the last seven contain the Quality Management System requirements. Its main benefits are:

improving a company’s image and credibility

improving client satisfaction

completing process integration

basing decisions on facts

creating a culture of continuous improvement

involving people

ISO 17100:2015 – Conformity for the quality of language services

ISO 17100:2015 is an international standard which replaces the previous standard EN 15038:2006 focused specifically on the translation services sector and directed at translation agencies as well as translation offices within companies.

The certification identifies the requirements for the main processes, resources and other aspects needed to perform a quality translation service that meets all the applicable specifications. Moreover, its application allows Language Service Providers to demonstrate the conformity of specific translation services to the Standard and the ability of its processes and resources to perform a service that meets the client’s specifications and other applicable requirements, that can be company-specific or related to the adoption of good practices or codes of conduct and relevant legislation.

The most important feature of the certification is the definition of the translation process, in which translation in the strict sense is only one of the steps and does not guarantee quality unless a revision is carried out by a second translator, as well as the precise definition of the professional skills of each of the participants in the translation process, mainly the translators, revisers and project managers.

The aforementioned skills defined in the ISO 17100 standard include:

translation competence

textual and linguistic competence in the source and target language

research competence

information acquisition and processing competence

cultural competence

technical competence

sectoral competence

Furthermore, the translator is required to have at least five years of experience in the field in which they translate/review.

Trust the experts.

1Stop Translations is ISO 9001, ISO 17100, and ISO 18587 certified for the quality of language services.

Our translations meet the highest quality requirements set by international standards, which impose not only perfect comprehensibility of the text, but also consistency of terminology, lexical and stylistic consistency, making us your ideal partner when multilingual content management services are concerned.