How to estimate time needed for a translation job Thread poster: Daniel Hug
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Hi everybody, I am working mostly inhouse, but for several departments, and things have developed in a way that I need to be able to estimate how long a translation job will take, approximately. It used to be the case that there was just a queue, and I would go job by job, but now there are so many clients, inhouse, but not necessarily connected with each other, that I have to tell them what's realistic and what's not.
How do other people do this? I can't be the only one... J... See more Hi everybody, I am working mostly inhouse, but for several departments, and things have developed in a way that I need to be able to estimate how long a translation job will take, approximately. It used to be the case that there was just a queue, and I would go job by job, but now there are so many clients, inhouse, but not necessarily connected with each other, that I have to tell them what's realistic and what's not.
How do other people do this? I can't be the only one... Jobs are vastly different in type. Some are "fill in from TM and check everything is correct". Others require significant research on the topic. (I know ahead of time which type it will be.) Some don't require research, but have no TM matches and are thus a lot of manual translation work.
How do you do this, and how much of the time spent on a job do you spend on this kind of estimation?
Thanks tons in advance!
Daniel ▲ Collapse
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I go by word count and how many words I can (comfortably) translate per day. That is different for everybody. I can comfortably translate 2500 words per day, but then I am not sitting at my desk 8 hours straight, having (rescue) dogs and ponies that need my time as well
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I worked in-house for 20 years and have been freelancing for another 20 years and the same time estimation method was used in both cases: per word based on 2,000/2,500 words per day, depending on the text complexity.
| | | | | How does TM leverage figure in? | Nov 1 |
Thanks so much Maria Teresa and Lisette!
How does TM leverage figure into your estimate? I might get a job with 2000 words, but half the segments are 100% TM match and another quarter are a 90%+ match. Actual translation is around 500 words in that case. Do you have a method for doing that quickly?
If someone shoots a job over to me, I need to be able with minimal effort to tell them: This is going to take around 5 hours, I can next slot it in the day after tomorrow. That kind of thi... See more Thanks so much Maria Teresa and Lisette!
How does TM leverage figure into your estimate? I might get a job with 2000 words, but half the segments are 100% TM match and another quarter are a 90%+ match. Actual translation is around 500 words in that case. Do you have a method for doing that quickly?
If someone shoots a job over to me, I need to be able with minimal effort to tell them: This is going to take around 5 hours, I can next slot it in the day after tomorrow. That kind of thing.
Daniel ▲ Collapse
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| Always leave yourself some extra time | Nov 2 |
I never calculate too tight. You never know what else you will come across in the document that could slow your work down - for example excessive tags.
If you can do 500 words in 1 hour I would always still tell the client the job would take 3 or even 4 hours because of that. Better than to deliver late. The client will be happy if you then deliver faster than they had expected
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 15:11
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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I use word count.
If there is a client TM, and if I'm reasonably certain of the client's TM's quality, then I count a fuzzy match word as 1/3 of a full word. This also applies to internal fuzzy matches. That just makes it easier. If I can see the match categories, I count any match of under 85% or under 75% as new words. If I'm not sure about the client's TM's quality, I penalize the TM somewhat, e.g. I count fuzzy matches as 2/3 of a full word.
I usually don't ... See more I use word count.
If there is a client TM, and if I'm reasonably certain of the client's TM's quality, then I count a fuzzy match word as 1/3 of a full word. This also applies to internal fuzzy matches. That just makes it easier. If I can see the match categories, I count any match of under 85% or under 75% as new words. If I'm not sure about the client's TM's quality, I penalize the TM somewhat, e.g. I count fuzzy matches as 2/3 of a full word.
I usually don't take repetitions into account, in other words, I base my calculation on the net word count excluding repetitions. Depending on how confident I am about the client's TM, I may count 100% matches as repetitions (i.e. 0/3) or as fuzzy matches (i.e. 1/3 or 2/3).
Of course, one must also take into account preparation of files, etc. This also takes time. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kevin Fulton
United States
Local time: 09:11
German to English
Word count, of course, is a primary factor, but as pointed out above, file preparation also involves a time cost: conversion from PDF, for example, might involve text reformatting as well as chasing out gremlin superfluous and potentially format-affecting tags. I've never relied on the TM when estimating time; savings in that regard should be considered a bonus (see "fudge factor" below). There should also be a time budget for checking/editing a file. On a few occasions, I've mistakenly sent a f... See more Word count, of course, is a primary factor, but as pointed out above, file preparation also involves a time cost: conversion from PDF, for example, might involve text reformatting as well as chasing out gremlin superfluous and potentially format-affecting tags. I've never relied on the TM when estimating time; savings in that regard should be considered a bonus (see "fudge factor" below). There should also be a time budget for checking/editing a file. On a few occasions, I've mistakenly sent a first draft to a customer and have received deserved criticism. Also, as already indicated by another colleague, there should also be a fudge factor, allowing for potential delays caused by technical issues or possibly the need for extra research. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 15:11
English to German
+ ...
| inhouse: agency or company? | Nov 2 |
Daniel Hug wrote:
Hi everybody, I am working mostly inhouse, but for several departments, and things have developed in a way that I need to be able to estimate how long a translation job will take, approximately. It used to be the case that there was just a queue, and I would go job by job, but now there are so many clients, inhouse, but not necessarily connected with each other, that I have to tell them what's realistic and what's not.
How do other people do this? I can't be the only one... Jobs are vastly different in type. Some are "fill in from TM and check everything is correct". Others require significant research on the topic. (I know ahead of time which type it will be.) Some don't require research, but have no TM matches and are thus a lot of manual translation work.
How do you do this, and how much of the time spent on a job do you spend on this kind of estimation?
Thanks tons in advance!
Daniel
Do you translate cross-country any type of text? From financial to marketing to crisis management to legal?
Since you are probably not new to the industry, you may know best how many words of a certain topic and project you can handle per hour and how much work is already in the pipeline. So what is the real problem?
(troll nose itching)
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| "PDF translations" - they are a category of their own | Nov 4 |
Kevin Fulton wrote:
Word count, of course, is a primary factor, but as pointed out above, file preparation also involves a time cost: conversion from PDF, for example, might involve text reformatting as well as chasing out gremlin superfluous and potentially format-affecting tags. I've never relied on the TM when estimating time; savings in that regard should be considered a bonus (see “fudge factor” below). There should also be a time budget for checking/editing a file. On a few occasions, I've mistakenly sent a first draft to a customer and have received deserved criticism. Also, as already indicated by another colleague, there should also be a fudge factor, allowing for potential delays caused by technical issues or possibly the need for extra research.
Thanks Kevin.
Part of working in-house is that I van insist on proper source documents. PDFs are the absolute exception, and I tell people that either they arrange for them to be brought into a proper format (docx or so) or I will take whatever Acrobat Pro makes out of them and return an unedited MT. That is often accepted – people are just looking for a ROI-grade translation, and MTs are usually good enough. But as I said, that's a rare exception.
“Potential delays”: This makes me think of a programmer friend of mine. I asked him whether he charges by hour or by project. He told me he prefers to charge by hour, but if a client insists on per-project, he estimates the hours he thinks he will need and multiplies that by the factor 8 (eight). That's his per-project price. Yes, there are often reefs you hit that you had not expected...
Thank you for your thoughtful response,
Daniel
| | | | | Thank you! Really helpful. | Nov 4 |
Samuel Murray wrote:
I use word count.
If there is a client TM, and if I'm reasonably certain of the client's TM's quality, then I count a fuzzy match word as 1/3 of a full word. This also applies to internal fuzzy matches. That just makes it easier. If I can see the match categories, I count any match of under 85% or under 75% as new words. If I'm not sure about the client's TM's quality, I penalize the TM somewhat, e.g. I count fuzzy matches as 2/3 of a full word.
I usually don't take repetitions into account, in other words, I base my calculation on the net word count excluding repetitions. Depending on how confident I am about the client's TM, I may count 100% matches as repetitions (i.e. 0/3) or as fuzzy matches (i.e. 1/3 or 2/3).
Of course, one must also take into account preparation of files, etc. This also takes time.
Thank you Samuel,
This information is really helpful. This is what I was looking for.
Daniel
| | | | Barbro Andersson
United States
Local time: 06:11
Member (2019)
English to Swedish
+ ...
| How I calculated the time and what I would make. | Nov 4 |
Hello. I would just time myself and see how much can I translate in an hour and then see what the expectancy is. So if you know you have a 10k+ document to translate, translate for one hour and see how many words you have done and then divide that amount by the 10k and you will get how many hours it will take you. Give or take. There could be of course passages that are more simple than others or vise versa, but that I use frequently when I get a big translation.
Hope that helps. ... See more Hello. I would just time myself and see how much can I translate in an hour and then see what the expectancy is. So if you know you have a 10k+ document to translate, translate for one hour and see how many words you have done and then divide that amount by the 10k and you will get how many hours it will take you. Give or take. There could be of course passages that are more simple than others or vise versa, but that I use frequently when I get a big translation.
Hope that helps.
Ml, Barbro ▲ Collapse
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