FprEN ISO 17100

Translation services - Requirements for translation services (ISO/FDIS 17100:2015)

Services de traduction - Exigences relatives aux services de traduction (ISO/FDIS 17100:2015)

Prevajalske storitve - Zahteve za prevajalske storitve (ISO/FDIS 17100:2015)

General Information

• Status: Not Published
• Publication Date: 18-Sep-2017
• Withdrawal Date: 18-Mar-2018
• ICS: 01.020 - Terminology (principles and coordination)
• Technical Committee: CEN/SS A07 - Translation services
• Drafting Committee: CEN/SS A07 - Translation services
• Current Stage: 3098 - Decision to reject - Consensus building
• Start Date: 21-Mar-2016
• Completion Date: 14-Apr-2025
• Ref Project: kSIST FprEN ISO 17100:2016 - Translation services - Requirements for translation services (ISO/FDIS 17100:2015)

Relations

• Revises: EN ISO 17100:2015 - Translation Services - Requirements for translation services (ISO 17100:2015)
• Effective Date: 19-Jan-2023

Overview

FprEN ISO 17100 titled Translation services - Requirements for translation services (ISO/FDIS 17100:2015) is an international standard developed by CEN in alignment with ISO/TC 37/SC 5. It specifies comprehensive requirements for the core processes, resources, and management necessary to deliver high-quality translation services. This standard targets translation service providers (TSPs) of any size seeking to demonstrate conformity to rigorous quality specifications in translation workflows. It excludes services like machine translation post-editing and interpreting but covers all aspects influencing translation quality and delivery.

This standard serves as a benchmark for consistent, reliable, and professional translation outcomes, covering everything from human resource qualifications to project management and technical resources.

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Key Topics

• Scope and Intent:
  It defines the framework for delivering translation services that meet client specifications, industry codes, and regulations, ensuring quality and reliability.

• Terminology and Definitions:
  Key translation terms are clarified, such as translation, translation workflow, process, product, and translation service. This ensures common understanding across the industry.

• Human Resources:
  Specifies qualification requirements for translators, revisers, reviewers, and project managers. Responsibilities for subcontracted tasks are also covered along with ongoing competence maintenance.

• Technical and Technological Resources:
  Management and availability of appropriate translation technologies and tools to support the translation process.

• Pre-production Processes:
  Includes enquiry and feasibility assessment, quotations, client agreements, project preparation (administrative, technical, linguistic), and handling of confidential client data.

• Production Process:
  Core translation steps such as translation, checking, revision, review, proofreading, final verification, and release are detailed with quality assurance measures.

• Post-production Processes:
  Focuses on client feedback, closing administration, and continuous improvement of translation services.

• Conformity and Application:
  Provides means for TSPs to demonstrate compliance, adaptable to organizational size and project complexity.

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Applications

Organizations employing translation services can use FprEN ISO 17100 to:

• Ensure Quality Control:
  Implement internationally recognized quality management in every phase of translation.

• Professionalize Translation Processes:
  Standardize workflows, qualifications, and tools, leading to improved client satisfaction and stronger quality assurance.

• Demonstrate Compliance and Reliability:
  Provide clear evidence of meeting client and regulatory specifications, essential for competitive bidding and contracts.

• Risk Management:
  Effectively manage confidentiality, project specifications, and subcontracted work, minimizing legal and operational risks.

• Integrate Technology Wisely:
  Guide decisions on utilizing translation technology without compromising quality.

This standard is ideal for translation companies, freelance translators aiming for certification, and large corporations managing in-house multilingual content.

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Related Standards

• ISO/TC 37 Standards: This standard is part of a wider family dedicated to terminology, language resources, and translation technology.

• ISO/IEC Directives: Governing the procedures for drafting and maintaining international standards utilized in this document.

• Industry-specific Best Practices: Though not replacing industry codes or legislation, ISO 17100 supports alignment with such frameworks.

• Other Translation and Localization Standards: Standards relating to post-editing, localization quality assessment, and interpretation services provide complementary guidance.

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Keywords: ISO 17100, translation services standard, translation qualification, translation quality management, translation workflow, translation process, translation service providers, CEN translation standards, professional translation requirements, international translation standard, translation project management.

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-februar-2016
Prevajalske storitve - Zahteve za prevajalske storitve (ISO/FDIS 17100:2015)
Translation services - Requirements for translation services (ISO/FDIS 17100:2015)
Services de traduction - Exigences relatives aux services de traduction (ISO/FDIS
17100:2015)
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: FprEN ISO 17100
ICS:
01.020 7HUPLQRORJLMDQDþHODLQ Terminology (principles and
NRRUGLQDFLMD coordination)
03.080.20 Storitve za podjetja Services for companies
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

FINAL
INTERNATIONAL ISO/FDIS
DRAFT
STANDARD 17100
ISO/TC 37/SC 5
Translation services — Requirements
Secretariat: ASI
for translation services
Voting begins on:
2015­12 ­17
Services de traduction — Exigences relatives aux services de traduction
Voting terminates on:
2016­02 ­17
Please see the administrative notes on page iii
RECIPIENTS OF THIS DRAFT ARE INVITED TO
SUBMIT, WITH THEIR COMMENTS, NOTIFICATION
OF ANY RELEVANT PATENT RIGHTS OF WHICH
THEY ARE AWARE AND TO PROVIDE SUPPORTING
DOCUMENTATION.
IN ADDITION TO THEIR EVALUATION AS
Reference number
BEING ACCEPTABLE FOR INDUSTRIAL, TECHNO­
ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
LOGICAL, COMMERCIAL AND USER PURPOSES,
DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS MAY ON
OCCASION HAVE TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE
LIGHT OF THEIR POTENTIAL TO BECOME STAN­
DARDS TO WHICH REFERENCE MAY BE MADE IN
©
NATIONAL REGULATIONS. ISO 2015

ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
ISO/CEN PARALLEL PROCESSING
This final draft has been developed within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and pro­
cessed under the ISO-lead mode of collaboration as defined in the Vienna Agreement. The final draft was
established on the basis of comments received during a parallel enquiry on the draft.
This final draft is hereby submitted to the ISO member bodies and to the CEN member bodies for a parallel
two-month approval vote in ISO and formal vote in CEN.
Positive votes shall not be accompanied by comments.
Negative votes shall be accompanied by the relevant technical reasons.
© ISO 2015, Published in Switzerland
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior
written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of
the requester.
ISO copyright office
Ch. de Blandonnet 8 • CP 401
CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Fax [phone]
[e-mail]
www.iso.org
ii © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
Contents Page
Foreword .v
Introduction .vi
1 Scope . 1
2 Terms and definitions . 1
2.1 Concepts related to translation and translation services . 1
2.2 Concepts related to translation workflow and technology . 2
2.3 Concepts related to language and content . 3
2.4 Concepts related to the people involved in translation services . 4
2.5 Concepts related to control of the translation service process . 5
3 Resources . 5
3.1 Human resources . 5
3.1.1 General. 5
3.1.2 Responsibility for sub-contracted tasks . 5
3.1.3 Professional competences of translators . 6
3.1.4 Translator qualifications . 6
3.1.5 Professional competences of revisers . 6
3.1.6 Professional competences of reviewers . 6
3.1.7 Competence of translation project managers . 6
3.1.8 Recording regular maintenance and updating of required competences . 7
3.2 Technical and technological resources . 7
4 Pre-production processes and activities . 7
4.1 General . 7
4.2 Enquiry and feasibility . 7
4.3 Quotation . 7
4.4 Client-TSP agreement . 7
4.5 Handling of project-related client information . 8
4.6 Project preparation . 8
4.6.1 Administrative activities . 8
4.6.2 Technical aspects of project preparation . 8
4.6.3 Linguistic specification . 8
5 Production process . 9
5.1 General . 9
5.2 Translation service project management . 9
5.3 Translation process .10
5.3.1 Translation .10
5.3.2 Check .10
5.3.3 Revision .10
5.3.4 Review . .11
5.3.5 Proofreading .11
5.3.6 Final verification and release .11
6 Post-production processes.11
6.1 Feedback .11
6.2 Closing administration .11
Annex A (informative) ISO 17100 Translation workflow .12
Annex B (informative) Agreements and project specifications .13
Annex C (informative) Project registration and reporting .15
Annex D (informative) Pre-production tasks .16
Annex E (informative) Translation technology .17
Annex F (informative) Non-exhaustive list of value added services .18
ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
Bibliography .19
iv © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards
bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out
through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical
committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International
organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work.
ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of
electrotechnical standardization.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of
any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or
on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation on the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity
assessment, as well as information about ISO’s adherence to the WTO principles in the Technical
Barriers to Trade (TBT) see the following URL: Foreword - Supplementary information.
The committee responsible for this document is ISO/TC 37, Terminology and other language and content
resources, Subcommittee SC 5, Translation, interpreting and related technology.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition (ISO 17100:2015), of which it constitutes a
minor revision. It incorporates the following modification:
— In 3.1.4, the three notes have been deleted.
ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
Introduction
This International Standard specifies requirements for all aspects of the translation process directly
affecting the quality and delivery of translation services. It includes provisions for translation service
providers (TSPs) concerning the management of core processes, minimum qualification requirements,
the availability and management of resources, and other actions necessary for the delivery of a quality
translation service.
This International Standard is intended for implementation by TSPs of any size. Conformity requires
all the International Standard’s provisions to be met, but the methods of implementation may differ
depending on the size and complexity of the organization and, in some cases, on the volume and
complexity of the translation service being requested of the TSP.
The following auxiliary verbs used in this International Standard have the conventional usage assigned
to them by ISO directives:
— shall – used to indicate requirements strictly to be followed in order to conform to the document
and from which no deviation is permitted;
— should – used to indicate that, among several possibilities, one is recommended as particularly
suitable, without mentioning or excluding others, or that a certain course of action is preferred but
not necessarily required;
— may – used to indicate a course of action permissible within the limits of the document;
— can – used for statements of possibility and capability, whether material, physical, or causal.
In this International Standard, the following convention in use has been adopted to provide clarity
where there might otherwise be confusion of concept:
— references to “requirements” relate to provisions of this International Standard, other standards, or
legal regulation;
— references to “specifications” relate to provisions involving the translation service or project
originating from the client, TSP, or other sources.
vi © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

FINAL DRAFT INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
Translation services — Requirements for translation
services
1 Scope
This International Standard provides requirements for the core processes, resources, and other aspects
necessary for the delivery of a quality translation service that meets applicable specifications.
Application of this International Standard also provides the means by which a translation service
provider (TSP) can demonstrate conformity of specified translation services to this International
Standard and the capability of its processes and resources to deliver a translation service that will meet
the client’s and other applicable specifications.
Applicable specifications can include those of the client, of the TSP itself, and of any relevant industry
codes, best-practice guides, or legislation.
The use of raw output from machine translation plus post-editing is outside the scope of this
International Standard.
This International Standard does not apply to interpreting services.
2 Terms a nd definiti ons
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
2.1 Concepts related to translation and translation services
2.1.1
translate
render source language content (2.3.2) into target language content (2.3.3) in written form
2.1.2
translation
set of processes (2.1.4) to render source language content (2.3.2) into target language content (2.3.3)
in written form
Note 1 to entry: A translation may refer to formats other than text-based formats (e.g. an audio file, image, etc.).
2.1.3
t r a n sl at ion work f low
processes (2.1.4), or parts thereof, involved in achieving target language content (2.3.3)
2.1.4
process
set of interrelated and interacting activities performed in order to achieve a stated objective
2.1.5
product
output of process (2.1.4)
EXAMPLE 1 A translated (2.1.1) version of a book purchased from a retail shop or on the web.
EXAMPLE 2 Intellectual property in the content of a translated (2.1.1) book can be the subject of agreement
between the author and the translator (2.4.4).
ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
EXAMPLE 3 A TSP (2.4.2) translating a book for a publisher is providing a service (2.1.6). Computer software
can be purchased to support a range of translation (2.1.2) processes (2.1.4).
Note 1 to entry: Many product categories comprise elements that form a generic product. Its dominant
element determines whether the product is designated processed material, intellectual property, software,
or services (2.1.6).
2.1.6
translation service
intangible product (2.1.5) that is the result of interaction between client (2.4.3) and TSP (2.4.2)
2.1.7
interpret
render spoken or signed information from one language to another language in oral or signed form
2.2 Concepts related to translation workflow a nd technology
2.2.1
computer-aided translation
CAT
part of translation workflow (2.1.3) in which a variety of software applications are used to support the
task of human translation (2.1.2)
Note 1 to entry: These computer programs are usually referred to as translation (2.1.2) tools, computer-aided
translation tools, or, sometimes, translation environment tools (TEnTs).
2.2.2
machine translation
MT
automated translation (2.1.2) of text or speech from one natural language (2.3.8) to another using a
computer system
2.2.3
machine translation output
outcome of machine translation (2.2.2)
2.2.4
post-edit
edit and correct machine translation output (2.2.3)
Note 1 to entry: This definition means that the post-editor will edit output automatically generated by a machine
translation engine. It does not refer to a situation where a translator sees and uses a suggestion from a machine
translation engine within a CAT (computer-aided translation) tool.
2.2.5
check
examination of target language content (2.3.3) carried out by the translator (2.4.4)
2.2.6
revision
bilingual examination of target language content (2.3.3) against source language content (2.3.2) for its
suitability for the agreed purpose
Note 1 to entry: The term bilingual editing is sometimes used as a synonym for revision.
2.2.7
review
monolingual examination of target language content (2.3.3) for its suitability for the agreed purpose
Note 1 to entry: The term monolingual editing is sometimes used as a synonym for review.
2 © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
2.2.8
proofread
examine the revised target language content (2.3.3) and applying corrections (2.5.4) before printing
2.2.9
project management
coordinating, managing, and monitoring a project throughout its complete lifecycle
2.2.10
style guide
set of editing and formatting instructions
2.3 Concepts related to language and content
2.3.1
content
anything representing meaningful information or knowledge
2.3.2
source language content
language content (2.3.1) to be translated (2.1.1)
2.3.3
target language content
language content (2.3.1) translated (2.1.1) from source language content (2.3.2)
2.3.4
text
content (2.3.1) in written form
2.3.5
source language
language of the source language content (2.3.2)
2.3.6
target language
language into which source language content (2.3.2) is translated (2.1.1)
2.3.7
language register
variety of language used for a particular purpose or in a particular social or industrial domain (2.3.10)
2.3.8
natural language
written, signed, or spoken human language
Note 1 to entry: For example, languages which are not natural include programming languages such as C++.
2.3.9
text-type convention
subset of specifications for the target language content (2.3.3) related to the content (2.3.1) type and
domain (2.3.10)
Note 1 to entry: For example, with acts of law, there are formal conventions which are always used by legislators.
2.3.10
domain
subject field, sphere of knowledge or activity having its own specialized culture, social context, and
linguistic characteristics
ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
2.3.11
locale
set of characteristics, information, or conventions specific to the linguistic, cultural, technical, and
geographical conventions of a target audience
2.4 Concepts related to the people involved in translation services
2.4.1
language service provider
LSP
person or organization who provides language-related services
2.4.2
translation service provider
TSP
language service provider (2.4.1) that provides professional translation services (2.1.6)
EXAMPLE Translation companies, individual translators, or in-house translation departments.
Note 1 to entry: Language service provider (LSP) (2.4.1) is a more general term involving other language-related
and value-added services but for the purposes of this International Standard, LSPs (2.4.1) are considered to be
TSPs when they are providing translation services.
2.4.3
client
customer
person or organization that commissions a translation service (2.1.6) from a TSP
(2.4.2) by formal agreement
Note 1 to entry: The client can be the person or organization requesting or purchasing the translation service
(2.1.6) and can be external or internal to the TSP’s (2.4.2) organization
2.4.4
translator
person who translates (2.1.1)
2.4.5
reviser
person who revises (2.2.6) target language content (2.3.3) against source language content (2.3.2)
2.4.6
reviewer
person who reviews (2.2.7) target language content (2.3.3)
2.4.7
proofreader
person who proofreads (2.2.8) target language content (2.3.3)
2.4.8
project manager
PM
person who manages specified aspects of a translation project and is responsible for the process
2.4.9
competence
ability to apply knowledge, experience, and skills to achieve intended results
4 © ISO 2015 – All rights reserved

ISO/FDIS 17100:2015(E)
2.5 Concepts related to control of the translation service process
2.5.1
ver i f ic at ion
confirmation by the project manager (2.4.8) that specifications have been fulfilled
2.5.2
document
information and its supporting medium
Note 1 to entry: The medium can be paper, magnetic, electronic or optical computer disc, photograph or master
sample, or a combination thereof.
Note 2 to entry: A set of documents, e.g. specifications and records (2.5.3), is frequently referred to as
“documentation”.
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2005, 3.7.2]
2.5.3
record
document (2.5.2) or report stating results achieved or providing evidence of activities performed
2.5.4
correction
action taken to correct an error in target language content (2.3.3) or translation
process (2.1.4) or a nonconformity to a requirement of this International Standard when conformity
has been claimed
Note 1 to entry: Corrections generally arise as a result of errors found when the translator is checking (2.2.5)
the target language content (2.3.3), when reported by a reviser (2.4.5) or reviewer (2.4.6) or proofreader (2.4.7) or
client (2.4.3), or during an internal or external audit of the implementation of this International Standard
...