Software localization (sometimes abbreviated L10n) is the activity of extending a software product to new markets by creating market specific pages that embody the objectives and desired effect of the source language while adopting the language, culture, imagery, nuances and technological requirements of the target audience.

The work tasks for performing professional high quality localization are usually more labor intensive and complex than that of standard professional translation. Generally, there are additional technology-related requirements in addition to that of language construction. This can necessitate the involvement of a greater body of experts including both software localization specialists and sometimes software development professionals (quality assurance testers and software engineers).

Software localization projects generally encompass the following processes:

• Localization of the software product itself
• Examination of the materials received from the customer
• Assessment of the resources and supportive technologies to be utilized for performing the localization
• Analysis of the language, customs and culture, imagery and other elements for the target market
• Terminology glossary development and management
• Creation of target market-specific translated content
• Modification of the forms, dialog boxes and input fields, and other components of the user interface as appropriate
• Adjustments to images for localization of messages within images, headings of charts and figures, embedded program scripts, and other such media. Alteration of the images and media themselves (in addition to the language) as appropriate for the target audience
• Creation and where applicable software compiling and software build steps for generating the localized files which will be used in the testing process (below)
• Testing of the localized software including both linguistic elements as well as functional components as appropriate – Depending on the type of software project, components of the testing effort (unit testing) are performed during the actual localization work (listed above). After completion of the software localization work, further testing is then usually performed including integration testing and acceptance testing.
• Localization of the software user manuals. This task includes the capturing and embedding of new screen images of the user interface in the target langauge(s)
• Localization of marketing & sales materials and other accompanying documentation

At Assured Language Solutions, when entrusted with serving customers with their software localization projects, we consider ourselves an extension to the clients' own in-house development team. As appropriate per the development style of the customer, we prioritize a fluid communication approach with the customer and the flexibility to adapt to the development methodologies of the customer including those of Rapid Application Development (RAD).

By working with clients in this way, the localization tasks that we perform for the customer, can be engaged in parallel with the customer's design, engineering, and testing of the source version of the product. Benefits include simultaneous market availability of all language versions of the product.

Our engagements generally involve specialists in several disciplines of software development including project management, language localization, graphics design, software engineering, localization testing, and desktop publishing.

Software internationalization (sometimes abbreviated i18n) is the activity of creating software or converting existing software into a structure that can be more readily modified to support multiple geographic regions and languages. Software localization is generally performed on software that has been internationalized. Localization is where the actual content of each target language is created based on the equivalent pages in the source language and/or specific requirements designed for the target market(s).

An important component of this process is ensuring the quality of the language portions via rigorous quality assurance testing. We provide customers a reliable quality assurance testing service.

Assured Language Solutions's combination of professional linguistic services with expertise in software development enable us to provide customers high quality software localization services. We complement customers' own internal development teams thereby resulting in rapid rollout of high quality multilingual, multinational software products.