What Is ISO 11669?
ISO 11669 is an international standard describing translation project specifications: a set of parameters a client and provider should explicitly agree on before work starts, rather than sort out along the way or after the fact. The standard's idea is simple, and that's exactly what makes it powerful: most disputes about translation quality are actually disputes about expectations that were never clarified upfront, not about linguistic errors.
What Goes Into a Project Specification
- Audience — who will read the translation, and at what level of expertise
- Purpose — internal use, publication, legal validity
- Terminology requirements — a required glossary, naming style, industry standards
- Delivery format — file structure, layout support, technical constraints
- Required quality level — translation only, translation plus LQA, or a full cycle with multiple reviewers
Why the Specification Needs to Be Its Own Thing
Without a fixed specification, judging translation quality becomes subjective: what looks like an excellent translation for internal correspondence might be unacceptable for a public legal document — and, the other way around, over-polishing a routine internal memo is wasted effort. A specification turns a subjective "is this translated well" into an objective "does this translation meet the requirements we agreed on."
ISO 11669 and Quality Evaluation
An ISO 11669 specification is exactly what quality is later measured against under ISO 5060: you can't objectively assess whether a translation meets requirements if the requirements themselves were never written down. The two standards pair up logically — one describes what to agree on before a project, the other describes how to evaluate the result afterward.
How It's Actually Used
In practice, few companies produce a formal specification document for every project — the principles of ISO 11669 more often show up as a project brief, glossary, and style guide handed to the translator and editor before work begins. The standard's value isn't in the paperwork itself, but in the discipline of fixing these parameters explicitly instead of assuming they're "obvious."
FAQ
Does every project need a separate formal ISO 11669 document?
No, the standard describes which parameters matter to fix, not a specific document format — a brief, glossary, and style guide together can serve the same purpose.
How does ISO 11669 relate to project cost?
Indirectly: a clear specification reduces the risk of rework caused by unclarified expectations, which ultimately saves both sides time and money.
What happens if a specification isn't agreed upfront?
Quality assessment becomes a post-delivery argument — the parties disagree about what "good" even means for that particular case.
Does the standard apply to machine translation?
Yes, a specification is needed regardless of who produces the translation — a person, or a machine followed by post-editing under ISO 18587.
How is ISO 11669 different from a project glossary?
A glossary is one element of a specification, covering terminology alone. An ISO 11669 specification is broader, covering audience, purpose, format, and the required review level.