What Is Quality? A Management Discipline and the Translation Industry Get Acquainted

Abstract

One way to answer the question “What is translation quality?” is to start with a framework put forward by Garvin (1984). That framework describes five approaches to determining quality: Transcendent, Product-Based, User-Based, Production-Based ("manufacturing" being Garvin’s term) and Value-Based. Garvin does not claim that any one of these approaches is sufficient unto itself. Rather, a well-rounded view of quality requires all five. The present article briefly describes these five approaches to quality and references the work of several of the most visible and respected people in the discipline of quality management. Following that presentation, the article discusses arguments for and against applying quality-management approaches to the translation industry. The authors of this article disagree about the relevance of quality management to the translation industry, but they do agree that stakeholders should take a position on the issue.

Keywords

• quality
• quality management
• translation
• fitness for use
• requirements
• specifications