An advanced Pseudo Localization Process is a requirement for Agile International Software Development!

Advanced Pseudo Localization processes are a requirement of Agile International Software Development. The software localization process will struggle greatly to keep up with the software development team sprints if high level pseudo localization processes are not applied vigorously at early development sprints. The Pseudo Localized builds then pass through a functional QA process in parallel with or indeed in place of source language builds.

Pseudo Localization enables the development of truly world ready software enabling true multilingual software sim-ship.

Pseudo localization is essentially the replacement of source text with readable pseudo-translated text. The pseudo translation language(s) can take a number of formats based mainly on the number of languages to be localised and the UI flexibility available.

The pseudo translated software UI must be readable text and therefore navigable by the software developers themselves the QA team and any others involved in the development process and for this reason a Machine Translation (MT) is not the correct process here.

Typically the minimum constituents of a pseudo language are text expansion and character substitution (“a” converts to “ä”). Text expansion, as English is one of the most concise languages. German for example can expand in areas by up to 50% creating a significant demand on UI layout creating great difficulty in PC application UI design but consider the effects of such significant expansion on a phone UI.

Pseudo languages can be quite complex and designed to include only tests for one language or many languages. The tests can include for example calculations for string length expansion based on the source string length as for example a short string might need a 100% expansion while a longer string may only need a 20% expansion.

Probably the most effective Pseudo localization process is the replacement process whereby a complete transformation to a language neutral position is made by the development team. The early development build QA takes place on Pseudo Localized builds rather than on source text builds.

The Pseudo Localization process checks your software/website for;

• Text expansion/truncation issues
• Externalisation of text (hardcoded text)
• Extraction of too much text
• Line break issues
• Some locale specific issues (date, address, numerals)
• Character encoding and font display issues
• User interface design problems
• String concatenation issues