The six maturity levels from CSA Research
Do you already manage terminology or are planning to start and would like to know where you stand in comparison to other organizations? Then you need the Terminology Management Maturity Model from CSA Research! Read on to find out exactly what this is all about and what it can offer to you.
Inhalt
Terminology is more than just collecting and managing terms. It encompasses everything from translation and corporate language with brand management to the advantages that well-maintained terminology has to offer in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and large language model (LLM) applications (see also - link to TAG blog article). Using the guide from CSA Research, you can determine how mature terminology management is in your organization.
The Terminology Maturity Model
Based on the classic process maturity models familiar from concepts such as Six Sigma or ISO 9000, the Terminology Management Maturity Model contains six successive phases that are typically involved in a terminology management system.
The six phases of terminology management are:
0: Inactive
Companies have not yet recognized the need for terminology management. There is neither a terminology strategy nor anyone who takes care of terminology.
Example: A start-up with a single product operates in one market and has not yet developed "language awareness".
1: Ad-Hoc
Individual employees in the company have started to keep word lists off their own back. These can be translators who create simple glossaries or authors who make a note of important words in order to communicate correctly or to simply no longer have to search for the right term. There is still no awareness of the potential of terminological methods or ways of working.
Example: A company recognizes that translators will only use the desired terminology or defined expressions if they are informed accordingly. Term-oriented lists or glossaries are therefore created and distributed manually to translation service providers to use during translation projects.
2: Basic
Individual teams, often in translation or technical writing departments, start working together on simple glossaries. Spreadsheet applications such as Excel or Google Sheets are often used. However, these initiatives remain limited to individual groups of people and are not communicated to others.
Example: A company recognizes that translators will only use the desired terminology or defined expressions if they are informed accordingly. Term-oriented lists or glossaries are therefore created and distributed manually to translation service providers to use during translation projects.
3: Siloed
The first initiatives based on terminological principles have been launched in a single department. These often arise during the introduction of applications such as translation management tools or content management systems that have their own terminology functions. However, their use is limited to the respective department and the users of these systems. No attempt is even made to think about terminology during content creation or before, for example during product development.
Example: A company's translation team uses the terminology functions of a new translation platform. Long discussions are held to clarify terminological issues and the solutions are recorded in these systems. Since the IT department will have heard of these systems, with a bit of luck the translation department will be asked for these word lists by the AI team.
4: Governed
The entire company recognizes the need for concept-oriented terminology management that is coordinated between departments. Terminology is embedded in all steps of the content creation process, from branding and editorial guidelines through to translation. Terminology is aligned with general knowledge management in the company, but the initiatives are not integrated with each other.
Example: A company has set up a terminology circle to clarify and record terminological ambiguities. Colleagues from the branding, marketing, product development, design and translation teams are involved in this terminology circle. The agreed terminology is made available throughout the company. This terminology is also integrated into AI projects from the outset.
5: Pervasive
Terminology is regarded as the intellectual property of the company, is managed accordingly, and is part of its business DNA. Professional terminology tools are used in all areas of the company, terminology is automatically synchronized and used for knowledge management in taxonomies or knowledge graphs.
Example: Terminology is accessible to all employees in the tools they use in their daily work. Texts are automatically checked for compliance with correct terminology. Quality checkpoints (quality gates) or process steps are introduced in the development process to ensure, among other things, the terminological clarification of product names or new functions. Terminology augmented generation (TAG) is established in generative AI.
Recommendations
To conclude the "Terminology Management Maturity Models" report, CSA Research offers a series of recommendations for companies on implementing terminology along the maturity phases:
- Identify the status of your company. Are you where you should be? What are the next development steps? What do you need in terms of processes and technology to reach the next phase?
- Make terminology available company-wide right from the start. Terminology is more than just a list of words for translators; it is the driver for the reliable implementation of generative AI and machine translation. It is indispensable in knowledge-based processes and content structures, and an essential component of a company's data governance.
- Make terminology available to your knowledge workers directly in their systems. Whether you are translating the website, writing technical documentation, producing content, or creating material master data: terminology helps everyone to choose the right words without having to leave their familiar working environment.
- Make sure that you retain full ownership of your terminology data. External service providers such as translation agencies can of course help to create and ensure compliance with terminology, but ownership, access, maintenance, and also responsibility for your corporate language should lie with you.
- Use term extraction to automatically extract and standardize terminology from your existing data, as this naturally contains your terminology already.
The Terminology Maturity Model at Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope welcomes this model as an important basis for efficient and effective terminology work. We see every day how the extremely important principle of having a "single source of truth" is often forgotten, without which terminology work will always remain piecemeal and incomplete. If you would like to know more about the processes and technology required or services such as term extraction, we would be happy to help.
Kalcium Quickterm from Kaleidoscope is available in three different editions to perfectly meet the requirements of phases 3 to 5:
- Phase 3: Quickterm Management avoids silos right from the start.
Based on the sophisticated terminology platform Kalcium, the Management Edition of Quickterm is exactly the right entry-level solution for professional, term-oriented terminology management. In contrast to the integrated terminology solutions of translation platforms or content management systems, Quickterm Management enables independent, collaborative terminology management throughout the entire organization from the comfort of a user's own web browser. This means that the focus is on collaboration right from the start, avoiding the formation of silos and making the step up to phases 4 and 5 much easier. Naturally the terminology can also be made available in translation tools, machine translation tools, authoring tools, or content management systems, for example. A single source of truth is therefore a given from the very beginning. - Phase 4: Quickterm Workflow makes collaborative governance possible.
The more terminology is rolled out in a company, the more departments want to get on board and "have their say". This results in a collaborative approach in terminology committees or between translation service providers, making processes and workflows such as approvals and notifications necessary. All these functions and more are supported by the Workflow Edition of Quickterm. It can be used to set up a suggestion system as well as to establish decision-making processes and change processes per language or even per department. - Phase 5: Terminology becomes "pervasive" with Quickterm Enterprise.
The Enterprise Edition offers tools for advanced knowledge management such as concept maps or taxonomies. This allows knowledge management tools to be directly integrated into your terminological landscape or for data to be exchanged with these tools. At the same time, the Enterprise Edition offers full access to the Kalcium API, with which terminology can be fully integrated into all areas of the company. For example, you can use the API's retrieval endpoint to automatically link terminology to AI applications. We call this TAG – Terminology Augmented Translation.
One more tip for those who are not already using an authoring tool like Acrolinx or Congree (both of which are fully integrated into Quickterm): you can also use Kalcium Checkterm to carry out terminology verification checks in your company.
Conclusion
The Terminology Management Maturity Model from CSA Research provides a structured basis for making informed decisions, minimizing risk, and increasingly exploiting the full potential of terminology management and its associated technologies. With the help of this model, companies can plan concrete steps to embed and automate the often isolated and manual processes throughout their organization while also furnishing corporate AI applications with reliable data for superior results.
The Kalcium terminology platform from Kaleidoscope grows with you as you progress along the terminology management chain, with the Management edition satisfying entry-level needs up to the Workflow and Enterprise editions for powerful professional applications.
Are you interested in learning more about the Terminology Maturity Model?
You can purchase the CSA Research study on the Terminology Maturity Model here: https://csa-research.com/Terminology
Would you like to implement your own solution?
Kaleidoscope will be happy to assist you with advice, support, and software as you move along this model.
More about Terminology
How to optimize AI output with terminology
AI and Terminology: An overview
How to integrate terminology into all your business applications
