Globalization has been a significant driver of economic growth and development, enabling companies to access new markets, increase their revenue streams, and diversify their customer base. It has also prompted the need for ongoing internationalization efforts, especially when it comes to tech. Thankfully, with ever-evolving localization software solutions, developers can keep up with the agile development of the digital age and the shrinking business world. 

Such solutions rely on continuous globalization, which integrates internationalization (i18n) and localization (L10n) continuously into software development, as opposed to only when a sprint or release has been completed. 

What Are the Features of Continuous Globalization?

The keys to continuous globalization are automation, visibility, and tracking. Automation refers to managing both legacy programs and new development by analyzing, verifying, and exchanging localization resource files from the build to the translator and back again in a continuous manner. During every stage of the process, you must monitor the software code repositories for i18n and L10n changes, as well as for any staging or linguistic issues. 

Visibility refers to the dashboard measurement and drill-down of i18n and L10n violations and changes. This is possible via the static analysis of source code repositories, including tools for fixing problems early during development.

Finally, tracking detailed metrics makes it possible to monitor progress, code quality, and translation timing, so users can devise and implement improvements. As you add and update features and locales to your software, these three elements will always ensure you have a reliable framework for faster global releases with no issues.

Why Is Continuous Globalization Necessary?

In practice, most software development endeavors treat localization as a delayed and manual process, outside of ongoing sprints and releases. This is contrary to agile and good software development management practices. 

Many companies depend on development & QA teams to manually remember to check for i18n and L10n issues while meeting other primary release objectives. Because this system gets the job done, they’re not inclined to seek out more streamlined localization software solutions. There are several drawbacks, however, to deploying a globalization approach that’s both manual and sporadic. 

First, developers must gather resource bundles for localization and hand them off, which puts the workflow of development and localization at odds. The localization team is then forced into reactive management, rather than proactive planning, as they have little visibility to what’s ahead. 

Furthermore, there are a host of administrative issues around managing what’s changed, not missing files, getting it out for localization, and then putting it back in the source code. Naturally, these can delay the process considerably while increasing the likelihood of handling errors later, when the teams have moved on. Every human-driven process costs the company more time and effort, hindering their global imperatives along the way. 

Turn to Lingoport for Reliable Localization Software Solutions

Lingoport can help you ensure your software reaches everyone. Founded in 2001, we provide internationalization and localization products for building world-ready software. Keep up with agile development using our expert i18n services. Request a demonstration to see the Lingoport Suite in action today!