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That delicate environmental balance...
Sep. 7th, 2004 09:07 amSomething someone said this morning (and the day is young) reminded me of the delicate balance between those who write documents and those who translate the same documents.
Some folks, you see, have been sending a regular stream of e-mails about imminent work that must be translated by a certain date. The only problem so far is that the messages keep promising delivery, but deliver nothing.
It reminds me of a situation from before I started keeping this journal, during the Shuttle-Mir program (the run-up to the ISS program). It so happened that the procedures for the science program for a particular increment had to be finished and translated by the end of July. (That fact I remember, the year escapes me.) We're talking about something like 1000 pages of work.
At first, the period for translation was three weeks (or about 50 pages per day); stiff, but doable. But then, the schedule for completing the original document began to slip because the folks writing the procedures, you see, needed the extra time. Did that cause a day-for-day slip in the final delivery date?
If you answered in the affirmative, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
Finally, on July 28, we were faced with the ridiculous situation of receiving the documents for translation without anyone having addressed the "drop-dead" deadline which loomed three days hence. All through the process, people were too busy to take time out to talk to the translators; it was simply assumed that we'd suck up whatever insane schedule that was given to us (we had a reputation for that, discussion of which is best left for another time).
I still remember a key phrase I used in the discussion we had with the client upon receiving the document: "You couldn't get this document retyped in the amount of time you're allowing us to translate it."
Reality hit like a runny whipped cream pie.
We got an extension, but only begrudgingly. I'm sure the client thought we good-for-nothings were sandbagging.
Anyway, it's probably too early to assume something like this is going to happen with the imminent document. I'll have to give the situation a couple of days.
Cheers...
Some folks, you see, have been sending a regular stream of e-mails about imminent work that must be translated by a certain date. The only problem so far is that the messages keep promising delivery, but deliver nothing.
It reminds me of a situation from before I started keeping this journal, during the Shuttle-Mir program (the run-up to the ISS program). It so happened that the procedures for the science program for a particular increment had to be finished and translated by the end of July. (That fact I remember, the year escapes me.) We're talking about something like 1000 pages of work.
At first, the period for translation was three weeks (or about 50 pages per day); stiff, but doable. But then, the schedule for completing the original document began to slip because the folks writing the procedures, you see, needed the extra time. Did that cause a day-for-day slip in the final delivery date?
If you answered in the affirmative, I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
Finally, on July 28, we were faced with the ridiculous situation of receiving the documents for translation without anyone having addressed the "drop-dead" deadline which loomed three days hence. All through the process, people were too busy to take time out to talk to the translators; it was simply assumed that we'd suck up whatever insane schedule that was given to us (we had a reputation for that, discussion of which is best left for another time).
I still remember a key phrase I used in the discussion we had with the client upon receiving the document: "You couldn't get this document retyped in the amount of time you're allowing us to translate it."
Reality hit like a runny whipped cream pie.
We got an extension, but only begrudgingly. I'm sure the client thought we good-for-nothings were sandbagging.
Anyway, it's probably too early to assume something like this is going to happen with the imminent document. I'll have to give the situation a couple of days.
Cheers...
