What is ISO 17100 and why is it important!

ISO 17100:2015 defines a set of best practises for managing translation services. Adhering to these best practises helps design a smoothly run translation process that delivers a quality translation.

ISO published this standard on 1 May 2015 as the first international standard for translation service requirements. While it is not the only set of best practise for translation out there it is definitely the most important one. This blog post will give you a short introduction to ISO 17100, explain some of the main requirement and show why it is important.

ISO 17100 was based on the previous European standard EN 15038:2006. This standard was developed within CEN and was published in May 2006. Since ISO now has a very robust subcommittee (TC37/SC5) that deals with all translation, interpreting and related technology issues it was deemed the best host for a new international translation standard.

In spite of the fact that ISO 17100 was based on EN 15038 it is a completely reworked and updated standard and it went through the complete standardization process at ISO. The result is, I believe, a very good standard which servers well translation service providers (TSPs), buyers of translation and the community.

There are several requirements which the TSP must adhere to in order to meet the requirements of ISO 17100. The TSP needs to acquire qualified and competent human resources and proper technical resources, and design process workflows which meets the requirements of the standard. The standard also states that the TSP is fully responsible for the entire translation project.

Human resources are very important to the standard. There must be a documented HR process in place. The standard sets out specific qualifications and competences for the various people involved in a translation project such as translators, revisers and project managers. However, it is not enough for the translation company to check that people have these competences but they must also be keep on record and updated regularly.

ISO 17100 states that there must be a written agreement between the client and the translation service provider. If the client and the translation company come to this agreement over the phone or email, the translation company is expected to write up the agreement and send it to the client as confirmation of what has been agreed. The standard also makes sure that the client knows beforehand what the translation project will cost because they receive a quote from the TSP.

Communication is essential to this standard. ISO 17100 states that queries in both directions must be dealt with effectively and the same applies to feedback which has to be relayed to all the individual involved in the project. It also specifies that there must be a process for communicating any information relating to linguistic specifications.

In all cases the workflow for an ISO 17100 translation project shall involve translation as well as full revision of the target text. Both the translator and the reviser shall have the same high qualifications and competences. This ensures that the principle of two pair of eyes is applied in the translation process and this is very important in ensuring quality. The project must also be managed by competent project manager who can demonstrate their qualifications.

These requirements jointly ensure that a translation performed according to ISO 17100 should be a quality translation. The standard also ensures that buyers of translation can be reasonably confident that they are working with a professional translation company who is using industry best practises to provide high quality translation service. More information on implementing ISO 17100 is available here.