The Evolution of Localizability Testing and the Importance of Localization

1. The Evolution of Localizability Testing & Pseudo Localization Models Bj Rollison, Test Training Manager Microsoft, Inc.

2. The importance of localization Higher growth in international markets Governmental requirements Localization is a right, not a privilege. Success in software industry today depends on international scope

3. In the beginning Hard coded strings in source code Source code recompiled per language main (void) { printf (Hello World!); return 0; }

4. Recompile localization ENU .rc src DEU .rc JPN .rc Others .rc Ifdef src Ifdef src Time & Cost Ifdef src

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6. Present day Single worldwide binary Resources isolated No compile localization LoadString ( hinst, IDS_HELLO, szFormat, cchMaxSz ); while { char szString[cbMaxSz]; int nPercent = PercentComplete(); _tnsprintf(szString, szFormat, nPercent); DrawString (szString); //more code stuff here } Hello Bonjour

7. No compile localization GLOBAL src ENU .rc DEU .rc JPN .rc Other .rc Reduced Time & Cost

8. Globalization Localization L10N Internationalization Model I18N

10. Typical localization process GLOBAL src ENU .rc Pilot Langs. .rc Tier 1 .rc Tier 2 .rc TIME + COST Tier 3 .rc Ifdef src

11. Localization lunacy Oh yeah now localize it! Engineering costs > 40% of software localization Too many code defects found during localization processes Often no way of knowing where defects exist until localization begins No standardized development or localization processes

13. So what is localizability anyway? An engineering paradigm that allows modifications to the resources used by a software program Without introducing functional defects requiring modification of the source code Without requiring retesting of common functional areas

14. Inventing the wheel Identify common defects Isolate causes Craft model Define new heuristics

15. Localizability Entomology Missing files, setup failures Build scripts Untranslated text Hard-coded strings Strings from external sources Functionality problems String dependencies Over translation

16. Localizability Entomology Accessibility key issues Non-ASCII key mnemonics Sentence composition Concatenated/dynamic strings Truncated text/buffer overflow Hard-coded string buffer size Button text in string table User drawn menus/controls Hard-coded style layout in CSS

17. Localizability Entomology Character corruption Hard-coded font Not Unicode enabled Incorrect meta charset tag User interface issue Dynamic controls Absolute coordinates Overlapping controls (string truncation) Registry keys used to display text

18. Taming the beast Set localization rules Append characters to all localizable strings Grow all string lengths Bracket all strings Replace accessibility key mnemonics

19. Pseudo localization models

20. Pseudo localization models

21. Hammer out the process Update BASE resources Generate pseudo loc dB Verify heuristics Generate pseudo build ALL ANSI charsets Unicode ONLY language Test!

22. International Sufficiency Testing Global Functionality Testing Localized Functionality Testing User Interface Testing Globalization Localization L10N Internationalization Model I18N Localizability Testing

23. Attacking localizability Pseudo localization model is not panacea for globalization testing Don t retest everything Don t use pseudo localized build to test general functionality Reuse automated tests Focus on localizability class bugs

24. Pseudo localization as THE pilot Pseudo Localized Pilot Loc. Vers. M1 Eng Lang Project M x M0 RC Spec. Loc. Vers. Pseudo localized build is the pilot language! Localization is not a release bottleneck!

25. Rebuilding the Tower of Babel Common linguistic databases Development tools Standardized processes Auto-resizing dialogs WYSIWYG localization tools Natural language processing

26. Summary E nglish is J ust A nother L anguage ( EJAL ) Reengineering still drives localization Single worldwide binary & no-compile localization development strategy Pseudo localizability models qualify localizability & improve quality Localization = translation/simple modification

27. Questions