Internationalization

Globalization does not just happen; it must be planned for. Even in the simplest cases, there will be issues that will work against successful globalization. Here is just a short list of examples for software:

1. graphics may contain embedded text that must be translated
2. screenshots may appear in a particular language
3. phone numbers in documentation will be usable only in one country

Because of such issues, a process known as internationalization is used to remove cultural assumptions from products during development so that they can be effectively localized.

Internationalization is the process of enabling a product at a technical level for localization. In other words, an internationalized product does not require remedial engineering or redesign at the time of localization. Instead, it has been designed and built to be easily adapted for a specific market after the engineering phase.

Internationalization primarily consists of abstracting the functionality of a product away from any particular culture, language or market so that support for specific markets and languages can be integrated easily. If a product has not been internationalized in advance, additional expenditure will almost certainly be incurred during localization. In some cases, such added expense will make it uneconomical to even localize. As a general rule, it is best to assume that it takes twice as long and costs twice as much to localize a product if it is not properly internationalized to start with. In the case of computer code, the difference can be much greater.

The degree of internationalization required depends, in part, upon the languages into which the product will be localized. If a product starts out in English and will be localized into French, Italian, German and Spanish (the so-called “FIGS” languages that were traditionally the most popular choices for localization), the level of internationalization engineering will likely be less than would be required if the product must support Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Arabic or Hindi, all of which require special planning and design considerations.

Thus, internationalization, like localization, should be considered from a business perspective: In what languages and regions will the product be sold? In what languages will it be sold next year or in five years?

Internationalization requires the active support of everyone involved in product design and development and of corporate management. The temptation is always to put off internationalization and to pass the resulting costs onto the localization team (which usually operates under a different cost center) to save time and money up front. The results are usually less than satisfactory since release dates are pushed back. In addition, functions available in the original language often fail to work in the localized versions.

Proper internationalization requires education and negotiation, as well as formal procedures that are consistently applied. One common problem with software is that developers attempt to add features as late as possible in the development cycle and then switch their efforts to complete the product. After project completion, they frequently take vacations or are reassigned to other projects, leaving localization staff without needed access to key development team members during their efforts. Such common working practices can contribute greatly to delays in the release of localized software.