Getting Started with LQA

Linguistic Quality Assurance is the process of objectively evaluating translations based on a schema of error types. To start using LQA, you need to:

1. Create an LQA Schema
   • Including the categories and error types and their descriptions with default severity of each error
2. Assign LQA to a workflow and workflow step
   • You could create a workflow specially for LQA, or add an LQA step on to an existing workflow(s), or simply enable LQA on any existing step on a workflow (including the Published step)

Accessing the LQA Schemas

1. Go to Account Settings (under your name) > Linguistic Quality Assurance
   • Here you can find a list of all LQA schemas on your account
   • When you create a schema, it will be in draft until you publish it. It will then be accessible on your workflow steps. Published schemas are non-editable.
   • You can have multiple schemas on any workflow, but only one schema per workflow step
   • Click the ellipsis to Edit the schema name, disable, or delete the draft schema entirely
     • Note, you must disable a published schema before you can delete it.
       
2. To enter and edit any schema, click the schema name.
3. From here, you can view the list of errors in the schema, edit or remove the errors, create a new category, and create a new error.

Setting Up LQA

STEP ONE: Choose an LQA Schema

1. Click Account Settings (under your name)
2. Choose Linguistic Quality Assurance
3. Click Create Schema
4. Choose to create the schema in the dialog or, choose one of the following templates:
   1. Smartling LQA Schema (Simplified MQM)
   2. Smartling LQA Schema (Full MQM)

STEP TWO: Edit the Schema

If you used a template, you can edit the weights of each severity level, the description of each category and error (ellipsis > Edit). When you're done editing, you can publish the schema template.

Note: The schema severity levels and weights cannot be edited once the schema is published. If you have to adjust the severity levels and weights after publishing, you will have to create a new schema.

If you created the schema via the dialog, do the following:

1. 1. Enter a schema name
   2. Choose error severity format
      • Numeric and enter the severity levels from lowest to highest
      • Alternatively, enter a custom severity format and custom severity levels
   3. Click Confirm

Next, develop the schema with categories and errors. To add categories to the schema:

1. Enter the schema by clicking the name
2. Click + Create Category
3. Enter a category name and description
4. Click save
5. Continue to create as many categories as your schema requires

Next, create errors in each category. To add errors to the schema:

1. When you're ready to create errors for each category, click + Create Error
2. Choose which category the error is to be applied to (required)
3. Enter the error name (required)
4. Enter a description (optional)
5. Choose a default severity level for the error (optional)
6. Decide if reviewers should be able to amend the default severity level for the error by selecting the checkbox
7. Continue until all schema categories have errors

When the schema is complete, publish it before adding it to a workflow.

STEP THREE: Publish the complete schema

By default, the schema will be in draft and unavailable to add to a workflow until the at least one category and error has been created. When the schema is ready, click Publish to make it available to add to a workflow.

To unpublish a schema, disable it from use from the ellipsis menu.

Note: You cannot edit published schemas. If you require modifications to any schema, you must create a new version.

STEP FIVE: Add LQA to the Workflow

LQA will only be available on post-translation steps. There are a number of ways you can add LQA to a workflow:

1. Create a dedicated LQA workflow
2. Create a dedicated LQA workflow step
3. Enable LQA on any post-translation step

Create a dedicated LQA workflow

Follow the steps to creating a workflow and decide if this workflow should have a dedicated LQA workflow step or integrate it with any post-translation step.

Create a dedicated LQA workflow step

• On the workflow you want LQA to be performed on, add a review step type
• It is recommended that “Automatically submit edits by users” is “off”, and LQA is not set up on a step that can be “skipped” in a dynamic workflow
• Next, follow steps to enable LQA on any post-translation step

Enable LQA on any post-translation step

Under Quality Assurance, select Use this step for Linguistic Quality Assurance, and select which published schema should be used from the dropdown.

This setting is available on the Published step, so you can perform LQA on completed translations.

Evaluating Translations

For information on how translations are evaluated with LQA, read our documentation for translators on Evaluating Translations with LQA.

Quality Reporting

Evaluating translations with LQA generates a range of reports, including:

1. LQA Dashboard: a visual representation of data on translation assessment with MQM scores. Only available when the MQM schema template is used.
2. LQA Reporting Analysis: an overview of LQA activity on a string-level.
3. LQA Error Density: a report on the density of LQA errors.
4. LQA Errors & Arbitration: an overview of errors and arbitration recorded in the evaluation.