What is ISO 5060:2024?
The recently introduced ISO 5060:2024 standard is set to revolutionise the evaluation of translation services.
This standard, published in February and titled “Translation Services – Evaluation of Translation Output – General Guidance,”, provides comprehensive guidelines for assessing the quality of delivered translations. In a world where adherence to regulations is becoming increasingly critical – , particularly in technical fields – stringent requirements such as those in the Machinery Directive and Medical Device Regulation (MDR), ensuring accurate and precise translations is more crucial than ever.
One of the key drivers behind the development of ISO 5060 is the proliferation of machine translation and artificial intelligence, which – when used incorrectly – has led to heightened risks in the translation process.
To address these challenges, the ISO committee for translation services initiated the standardisation project for ISO 5060 in 2020 under the leadership of Dr. Christopher Kurz. Industry experts , collaborated to create a standard that would benefit clients, translation service providers, translators, and other stakeholders within the translation industry.
So what does ISO 5060 mean for Translation Projects?
ISO 5060 sets a new benchmark for quality assessment in translation services. Anchored in the fundamental principles of meeting customer requirements and delivering exceptional services, this standard complements existing ISO standards such as ISO 17100 for human translation, ISO 18587 for post-editing of machine translations, and ISO 9001 for quality management systems.
By emphasising systematic evaluation, ISO 5060 ensures a structured comparison between source-language and target-language content, aligning with the specifics of each translation project.
The standard facilitates the evaluation of human translation outcomes, post-edited machine translations, and even unedited machine translations. Whether assessing the entire document or specific extracts, evaluation can occur at various stages of the translation process.
This allows for a comprehensive performance assessment of suppliers by clients and enables translation service providers to objectively review the work of translators, revisers, or post-editors.
Most crucially, ISO 5060 promotes consistency and reproducibility in evaluations, ensuring that assessments are conducted according to predetermined criteria over time to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
How does it affect me?
The introduction of the ISO 5060 standard heralds a new era of quality assessment and optimisation in translation services. As the industry continues to evolve, this standard will play a pivotal role in fostering excellence, transparency, and consistency in translation processes.
Whether you are a translation service provider, translator, or client, adhering to ISO 5060’s principles will elevate the quality of translation services and ensure that the needs of all stakeholders are met effectively today and in the future.
As AI continues to rise in popularity, its advancements have also brought attention to the inconsistencies and errors that can occur without proper human oversight. These inaccuracies can have profound consequences, especially when crucial information fails to be accurately and adequately translated. The potential life-altering effects of such errors underscore the necessity for human checks in the translation process.