\mu Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development A compilation and systematic presentation of guidelines for multilingual software development applicable to software in all stages of the lifecycle with the goal of encouraging and facilitating internationalized and localized software products. Muhammad Murtaza Ahmed Shwan Chalmers University of Technology University of Gothenburg Department of Computer Science and Engineering Göteborg, Sweden, October 2009 Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development The Authors grant to Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg the non-exclusive right to publish the Work electronically and in a non-commercial purpose make it accessible on the Internet. The Authors warrants that they are the authors to the Work, and warrant that the Work does not contain text, pictures or other material that violates copyright law. The Authors shall, when transferring the rights of the Work to a third party (for example a publisher or a company) acknowledge the third party about this agreement. If the Author shave signed a copyright agreement with a third party regarding the Work, the Authors warrant hereby that they have obtained any necessary permission from this third party to let Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg store the Work electronically and make it accessible on the Internet. Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Muhammad Murtaza Ahmed Shwan © Muhammad Murtaza, March 2012. © Ahmed Shwan, March 2012. Examiner: Agneta Nilsson Chalmers University of Technology University of Gothenburg Department of Computer Science and Engineering SE-412 96 Göteborg Sweden Telephone + 46 (0)31-772 1000 Cover: the cover page picture is a “word cloud” that shows the most frequently used words in this report. Department of Computer Science and Engineering Göteborg, Sweden March 2012 2 Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Muhammad Murtaza & Ahmed Shwan Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development VERSION CONTROL VERSION CHANGES DATE AUTHOR 1.0 Template and draft outline added 20110922 MM 2.0 Literature review 4.1 and 4.2 added 20110930 MM & AS 2.1 Literature review 4.3 appended 20111031 MM & AS 2.2 Literature review completed 4.3 20111114 MM & AS 2.3 Literature review reviewed and appended 4.3 20111130 MM 2.4 Preface, Chapters 1 and 3 added 20111213 MM & AS 2.5 Chapter 2 added 20111217 MM & AS 2.6 Section 1.2.1 updated 20111226 AS 2.7 Sections 3.4 and 4.1 updated 20111231 MM & AS 2.8 Chapter 4 updated; up to 4.4.3 finalized 20120102 MM & AS 2.9 Outline for Chapter 5 finalized 20120106 MM 3.0 Sections 4.4.4, 4.4.5 and 4.4.6 finalized 20120108 MM & AS 3.1 Sections 4.5, 4.6 and 4.4 finalized 20120110 MM & AS 3.2 Up to 4.6 completed 20120113 MM & AS 3.3 Chapter 4 completed 20120114 MM 3.4 Section 5.1 completed 20120129 MM & AS 3.5 Chapter 3 updated 20121229 MM 3.6 Appendix added 20121229 AS 3.7 Section 5.2 completed 20120203 MM & AS 3.8 Section 5.3 GNTs done, details to be added. 20120205 MM & AS 3.9 Chapter 6 completed 20120207 MM & AS 4.0 Chapter 5 completed 20120208 MM & AS 4.1 Chapter 7 added 20120209 MM & AS 4.2 Abstract and Conclusion added 20120210 MM & AS 4.3 Overall review done; ready for submission 20120211 AS 4.4 Updated based on Sven’s final review 20120224 MM 4.5 Minor updates based on examiner’s feedback 20120416 MM & AS 3 Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Muhammad Murtaza & Ahmed Shwan Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Page left blank intentionally 4 Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Muhammad Murtaza & Ahmed Shwan Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development MASTER’S THESIS IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Muhammad Murtaza and Ahmed Shwan Department of Computer Science and Engineering Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Gothenburg, Sweden February 2012 5 Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Muhammad Murtaza & Ahmed Shwan Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Muhammad Murtaza and Ahmed Shwan © MUHAMMAD MURTAZA & AHMED SHWAN, 2012 Master’s Thesis 2012 Department of Computer Science and Engineering Chalmers | University of Gothenburg SE-412 96 Gothenburg Sweden Telephone: +46 (0) 31-772 1000 Printer/Department of Computer Science and Engineering Gothenburg, Sweden 2012 6 Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Muhammad Murtaza & Ahmed Shwan Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Master’s Thesis in Software Engineering Muhammad Murtaza and Ahmed Shwan Department of Computer Science and Engineering Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Abstract For software products to be effectively usable by an international audience, they must be localized, or translated, to suite the target user group’s culture and language. Multilingual software development is a vast topic and it crosscuts all the phases of software development life cycle and it requires consideration of additional factors and activities such as new roles and linguistic translation of content to one or more languages. One of the main reasons why most developers ignore multilingual software development is a lack of awareness about the related activities, tools, technologies, practices and service providers, as well as the associated uncertainty of possible implications. This thesis project aims to raise awareness about and encourage multilingual software development. This is done by reviewing relevant literature and understanding industry practices, and then presenting a list of guidelines for multilingual software development in an organized manner and providing a means of accessing only the guidelines suitable to and useful for a given project. To be specific, guidelines for multilingual software development are provided for software projects that are under feasibility study, being implemented or in maintenance phase. The relevant guidelines can be retrieved using the Guidelines Navigation Tools (GNT) devised for different software lifecycle phases. Keywords: multilingual, software, internationalization, localization, development, guidelines, translation, SDLC, guidelines navigation tool, GNT. 7 Chalmers | University of Gothenburg Muhammad Murtaza & Ahmed Shwan Guidelines for Multilingual Software Development Preface Digital data and information, as opposed to data and information available on paper, can easily be copied, transmitted, shared, reviewed and even converted. We believe conversion of data and information, also known as translation, is being neglected by many and it is about time to bring the attention of software publishers to this issue, and encourage and assist them to make their products international. It is recognized that unlike copying, transmitting, sharing and reviewing the process of electronic data and information conversion to suit non-native target audiences is complex and multi-disciplinary. It requires numerous technical solutions, administrative approaches and human translators. Also, technological advancements in the field of machine translation or computer-aided translation are far from replacing human translators and interpreters. Nevertheless, a key step towards making electronic data and information accessible to all humans around the world is to build software with non-native language speakers in mind. This starts by understanding that unlike written text or spoken words, there is a need for more than mere translation. The technical term for software translation is localization, and it is far more than mere translation of the textual content of the software; it includes technical activities, project management, administration and more. It is not being claimed that all software should be implemented with all human languages in mind, but they should definitely be designed and implemented utilizing the already available technologies and project management practices so that future non-native needs can be cost-effectively satisfied. Just like good design and coding practices are embedded in development technologies and enforced through implementation methodologies, multilingual software requirements should be given a similar attention, if not for immediate requirements, then for the inevitable non-native language needs and potential benefits of multilingual software. After all, project owners often eventually realize the tremendous benefits of potentially accessing a larger audience that is beyond the native speakers. Designing and developing international software is an important issue, but what about the already developed and deployed software applications? What about the data managed by these applications? If we consider the number of web applications on the internet alone, isn’t it important to internationalize them too? With the presumption that a main problem with the lack of multilingual software today, and as a result globally inaccessible software, lies in the obliviousness of the project owners and developers, and through diligent literature and case studies’ reviews, it was concluded that a positive contribution to the main goal (of making software, and thus data, accessible to all) would be the compilation and organization of guidelines for multilingual software development. Guidelines that can be easily navigable and suitable depending on what the software lifecycle stage would be cost-effective and provide encouragement for project owners and developers, and possibly increase the number of multilingual software applications. This includes guidelines for the vast number of