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I always try to put myself in the opponent's shoes...in this case,
the opponent is management who wants this done by the customer.
Going on the assumption that translation is mandatory (client-driven,
if this is not the case, everything changes)
Let's say this is a large document set, maybe 5,000 total pages of
content. Maybe this will cost $20,000 to translate into one language
(Is $4.00 a page reasonable?)
If I'm management, I'm going to look at all the downsides that would
result in more than $20,000.00. ARE there $20,001.000 downsides?
Another factor. I'm against a tight deadline to deliver my
pre-translated material...who isn't? If I add translation to the
deliverable, that's 3-6 weeks earlier I have to finish to give
translation a production window. OTOH, if the customer is going to
get the English version and translate themselves, I can probably keep
some of that time for myself.
Remember...it's all math. You just need to know the formula
management is working with.
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
"I think the problem, to be quite honest with you, is that you've never actually known what the question is."
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