Quality assurance in the technical documentation and translation process

Quality assurance in the technical documentation and translation process is a means of assuring both quality as a process and quality documents as a result of any quality processes implemented. The willingness to improve quality is the common desire of commerce partners and a project team co-operating in the production of a quality assurance manual, which is the topic to be discussed in this paper. A concentration of mutual efforts on the road to higher quality in technical documentation is the focus of this quality assurance manual to be created in accordance with the partners' requirements. Furthermore, the easy implementation of necessary changes to this manual and the introduction of new approaches to process handling combine to make the quality assurance manual versatile and lasting. Preconditions to this approach are manifested in the quality awareness required of the participants, as well as in an openness towards innovative quality measures. As a consequence of these preconditions, a modular approach is taken to organise and structure the documentation workflow, and to incorporate quality aspects and measures into modules. Modularity is a key factor for converting these project requirements into reality, thus ensuring that quality criteria are assigned to individual tasks and steps within the documentation production workflow. Modules are specified and designed to constitute the centre of the quality assurance manual which will be presented as a flexible and editable on-line document.