Video summary by RISHAV ARYAN

Video Link: https://youtu.be/H54maXR_r-I

Anything we do has a life cycle: a beginning, a middle and an end. The more complex the task, the more carefully that life cycle has to be managed - and that management is the project management process. In this Modlingua video, we show how project management processes apply to translation projects and how the PDCA cycle (Plan, Do, Check, Act) keeps a translation agency's workflow improving.

The aim of project management is to achieve all of the project's goals within the given time and the client's objectives. Once those objectives are clear, they should guide every decision made by the people involved - project managers, translators, editors and reviewers. The process runs through four phases: initiating, where the project's goals, timeline and required resources are defined; planning, where the team is assembled and the path to on-budget, on-time delivery is mapped; execution, where tasks are assigned and progress is managed with project management tools; and closing, where the team confirms the project was completed as planned.

Project managers plan more efficiently through a work breakdown structure (WBS), which reduces complicated activities to a collection of tasks. A good WBS assigns costs to each task, tracks progress against a schedule, defines the scope, and fixes responsibility for every task.

The PDCA cycle ties it together for translation work: plan the workflow, do the translation and review, check quality against the client's requirements, then act on what the check reveals so the next project runs better. Throughout the process, the project manager and the translator carry the result - the manager owns planning, control and closing on the client's behalf, while the translator makes the incomprehensible understandable across language and cultural barriers.

This is exactly the workflow behind Modlingua's certified translation services: managed processes, checked quality, delivered on time.