© 2011 IBM Corporation
Basics of Pro-Active Risk Management
for Globalization Projects
Vanessa Wilburn, PMP®
© 2011 IBM Corporation2 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Agenda
Identification (breakout activity)
Analysis
Prioritization
Planning (breakout activity)
Classic mistakes
Trend watch
© 2011 IBM Corporation3 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Identifying Project Risks
Internal and external risks–Internal: Easier to mitigate
• Requirements that change• Errors, omissions, poor estimates, poor communication, or
misunderstandings–External: Hard to control
• Political changes, market changes
Ripple effects from a single risk–Late delivery, cost overruns, schedule shifts, or penalty payments
© 2011 IBM Corporation4 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
G11N Project Risks
Unplanned requirements
Changing requirements
Resource issues
Cost overruns
Acquisitions and mergers
Vendor schedules
© 2011 IBM Corporation5 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Name That Risk – Breakout Activity
1. Translation done by vendor done in country?
2. Translation done by vendor done anywhere by vendor?
3. Software G11N is done by product development team?
4. Software G11N is done by external vendor?
© 2011 IBM Corporation6 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Risk Analysis Process
1. Identify risks
2. Prioritize risks– Qualitative methods determine likelihood and impact
of risks.– Quantitative methods determine effect of risk and
assign numerical ratings.
© 2011 IBM Corporation7 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Risk Probability
Low –The event has little chance of occurring.
Medium–The event has some chance of occurring.
High–The event is likely to occur.
© 2011 IBM Corporation8 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Risk Impact
Low–The event has little potential to disrupt the schedule, increase the cost, or degrade performance.
Medium–The event has some potential to disrupt the schedule, increase the cost, or degrade performance.
High–The event is likely to seriously disrupt the schedule, increase the cost, or degrade performance.
© 2011 IBM Corporation9 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Risk Severity MatrixRisk severity is a combination of the probability and the impactof the risk.
MediumMediumLowLow
HighHighMediumMedium
HighHighMediumHigh
HighMediumLow
Pro
babi
lity
Impact
© 2011 IBM Corporation10 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Planning for Project Risks
Risk mitigation–Determine if a risk event is too high, or if there will be serious
consequences–Explore how to bring the risk into an “acceptable” range or
avoidance
Strategies for risks or threats –Avoid. Change the plan to eliminate the threat posed by an
adverse risk, to isolate the project objectives from the risk’s impact, or to relax the objective that is in jeopardy, such as extending the schedule or reducing scope.
–Transfer. Shift the negative impact of a threat, along with ownership of the response, to a third party. Gives another partyresponsibility; does not eliminate risk.
–Mitigate. Reduce the probability and/or impact of an adverse risk event to an acceptable threshold.
© 2011 IBM Corporation11 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Strategies for Positive Risks or Opportunities
Exploit. Ensure that the opportunity is realized.
Share. Allocate ownership to a third party who is best able to capture the opportunity for the benefit of the project.
Enhance. Modifies the “size” of an opportunity by increasing probability and/or positive impacts.
© 2011 IBM Corporation12 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Responding to Risks
Risk plan as response to risks
Corrective actions–Contingency plans–Workarounds for unplanned risks
Preventative actions–Action that reduces the probability of negative consequences of risks
Approved change requests
© 2011 IBM Corporation13 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Planning Exercise – Breakout Activity
© 2011 IBM Corporation14 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
G11N Project Risk Example 1
You’ve been working with one vendor on several projects. They are always late in delivering your globalized product by as much as 6 weeks. –What is the probability and impact (risk severity) they will continue this pattern on the next project?
–What can you do to plan for this occurrence?
Write down your responses.
© 2011 IBM Corporation15 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
G11N Project Risk Example 2
Your G11N vendor has always supplied consistent resources – same people – on your projects, however, the next project will have new people involved. –How can you keep this from happening?–What can you do to ensure consistent quality with potentially new resources involved?
Write down your responses.
© 2011 IBM Corporation16 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
G11N Project Risk Example 3
Your new project will add 6 more locales to your product’s existing 5 locales.–How do you determine that your vendor can handle this new increase demand?
–What additional steps will you take to ensure delivery of these language additions?
Write down your responses.
© 2011 IBM Corporation17 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Classic Mistakes
© 2011 IBM Corporation18 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Process Issues – General
Lack of communication and understanding of the company business direction
Expectation that budget and cost estimates remain static year to year, instead of shrinking due to today’s economic reality
Not verifying the translation in country after it is complete or mostly complete
Delivering too little or too much English text to translation company
– Too much: Pay overtime to meet project schedules– Too little: Lose money on fix-priced contracts with translation group; create ill-
will with translation company because they staffed for larger translation
© 2011 IBM Corporation19 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Process Issues – Technical Education
Erroneous perception that translation = multicultural support. Some issues are not understood as being software issues.
Engineering teams frequently have no knowledge of the basic G11N requirements.
–Example: Incorrect assumptions are made: a text string is always displayed from left to right.
Engineering teams might use the wrong software development tools.
–Software development tools might not have G11N capabilities.–Team doesn’t know that the G11N tools are available in their
software development tools.–No framework in development environment to manage additional
languages and new elements such as message catalogs.
© 2011 IBM Corporation20 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Process Issues – People
People: Structure of organization leads to conflicts.–Functional: Hierarchy is where each employee has one clear supervisor.–Projectized: Groups either report directly to the project manager or provide
support services to the various projects.–Matrix: Structure is a blend of functional and projectized characteristics.
Responsibilities are overlooked and thus are not assigned to an owner. Tasks and deliverables end up missing from the project.
Intermediary (in-country) coordinator does not advise of labor disputes with translation vendor.
–Example: Contract issues with translation vendor are not surfaced back to you, the project manager.
–Example: Intermediary does not inform you that a translator plans to quit in the middle of the translation. (Lose consistency in translation when you switch to another translator, if a translator is even available).
© 2011 IBM Corporation21 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Scope Issues
PM underestimates amount to translate.
PM overlooks aspects that require multicultural support or translation (for example, only books need translation; the online help gets forgotten).
Sizings assumptions are not exposed.
– Does the word count include the reused text?
– Does the word count exclude text that is in the file but doesn’t appear on the screen?
Product relies on other 3rd party software that is not globalized.
– Customer expects all aspects of product to be globalized, not just “base product.”
Requirements definition: who wants what translated for which customer and why
– Team does not fully understand the requirement.
– Ambiguous objectives lead to differing solutions.
Team does not know who the product is for. And nobody is asking.
© 2011 IBM Corporation22 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Schedule Issues
Not accounting for intersections of national holidays and hard dates
– Where translation occurs, for example Asian New Year
– Where English-language product is developed and managed
Not allowing enough time to correct mistakes from G11N testing
– Translated product GUI labels won’t fit.
– Product mishandles dates.
Delivering too late or too early– Translation companies rely on
contractors; contractor schedules are tightly controlled.
– Too early: You pay for contractors even though they have nothing to translate.
– Too late: Contractors no longer available.
© 2011 IBM Corporation23 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Content-Specific Issues
Terminology management– Lack of term management early or
ever– Decentralized teams using multiple
terms or product names for one thing
Too small estimates for word counts
– Writers’ inexperience with estimation – Scope creep– Lack of checkpoints to refine original
estimates
Tooling problems, such as:– Mismatches between authors’
software version and translators’version
– Complex build/transform environments for DITA > HTML
Insufficient time allotted for translation of screen captures (time-consuming)
Help system not enabled for other locales, such as right-to-left languages or searches with non-English character setsCommunity-created content, such as comments
– No translation or MT is insufficient– Culturally-appropriate content
nonexistent/inaccurate (users’expectation for a richer local site than “main” site)
Collaboration translation (aka crowd sourcing)
– Low quality due to poor language skills or technical knowledge
– Lack of translators interested in participating
Name yours!
© 2011 IBM Corporation24 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Trend Watch, a Few Examples
Social–☺ Community-created content already translated and culturally appropriate!– Large volumes of content, faster translation times needed
Mobile – New technologies and delivery processes to learn, scope creep (we’re
doing mobile now?!)
Emerging markets–☺ G11N organizations: growth area– New translators for potentially unusual markets, no translation memory for
new language
Today’s business reality: No resources, no budget, no time
Improved machine translation–☺ Machine translation starting to rival human translated information– Corollary to previous bullet: bean counters consider MT “good enough”
© 2011 IBM Corporation25 Risk Management for Globalization Projects Vanessa Wilburn
Thanks!
Vanessa Wilburn is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and senior STC member with 16 years of technical communication and project management experience. She has been a project lead, architect, editor, and writer on several IBM products in the Software Group.
As part of a Localization Certification program, she teaches an online course, Localization: Introduction to Project Management, at Austin Community College. Previously, she was part of the marketing team, the developer/webmaster of the company's Web site, writer, and instructional designer.
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/vanessa-wilburn/0/417/915