How Technical Writers Based in More Than One Country Can Speak a Common Language

In global companies, it is not uncommon for technical writers to be distributed across continents, and to be responsible for technical documentation as a team. And this situation can also come about overnight when companies open a branch abroad or grow internationally through acquisitions. But in this case, which source language do they choose when creating technical documentation? We present three possible solutions.

Scenario 1: You divide up the tasks based on the subject matter

Perhaps the specialists responsible for a specific product component (such as software) are based abroad, while your site in a German-speaking country is focused on hardware, for example. If this is the case, it makes sense to divide up the various elements of the technical documentation within your international team based on the topic. Once created, the texts will then be translated into the other language. The result is an operating manual in two languages.

Pros:

• Everyone writes in their native language, which is convenient and saves time.
• The quality of the text is therefore very high.
• Each technical writer is largely autonomous in their daily time management because they are not dependent on the work progress of their colleagues.

Cons:

• It requires a common writing style. To ensure consistency as far as possible, you should draw up writing guidelines in advance.

Scenario 2: You agree on a common language

It is not always possible or desirable to divide the technical documents according to the expertise of the individual technical writers. Another option when collaborating in a team is to work on the same document continuously.

Different time zones may even prove advantageous with this scenario, because you and your colleagues can work on your documentation successively over the course of the day. In this case, it is a good idea to agree on one language for text entry, for example English.

Pros:

• When one person stops writing, the next one continues. This approach makes it possible to produce technical documentation within a very short time frame.

Cons:

• An author writes in a foreign language in which they may not feel fully comfortable. If they lack language skills, they will need more time to write the texts, and the review work will also require a little more attention. You should plan for this from the outset.
• Discussions on the phone may prove difficult to schedule due to time differences. A Content Management System such as SCHEMA ST4 offers the option of exchanging information on specific content using the comment function.

Scenario 3: You use translation tools

If you do not want to agree on a common language – because you or your colleague are not sufficiently skilled in a foreign language, for example – there is a further option: you use machine pre-translation. At the end of your working day, you translate your texts. Thanks to the time difference, your colleague can then continue writing in their own language. Of course, this works the other way round too.

Pros:

• Each team member writes in their native language.
• When the technical documentation is complete, it is available in two languages – at least

as a pre-translated version.

Cons:

• Pre-translation has to be integrated into your processes. Check whether the technical features of your Content Management System allow this. With SCHEMA ST4, this works via the “Smart Extension AI Translator”, which you can use to translate texts with DeepL. Connection to a translation memory system, which offers machine translations depending on the range of features, is possible via an interface.
• Machine translation doesn’t deliver the highest quality texts. You should therefore have a translator check and correct the technical documentation so that both language versions satisfy your quality criteria, and so that consistency – including terminology – is guaranteed.

Conclusion:

As you can see, working successfully and as a team on technical documentation across language barriers or continents is primarily a question of organization. A Content Management System can make a significant difference in supporting you with international collaboration. It ensures order and clarity, saves time, and relieves you of tedious tasks such as copying and pasting into a browser-based translation tool.

With a Content Management System, you can store all your content centrally in a single location and every employee can access the latest documents at any time. Furthermore, the system is also designed to manage multilingual content. To ensure consistency, you should create technical writing guidelines that are binding for the entire team and the team should mutually define and maintain terminology. A Content Management System can also help you with this – enabling your team to be optimally prepared for multinational collaboration.